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THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  FUTURE.    i6mo,$i.oo. 
UNDER  THE  CACTUS  FLAG.    Illustrated.    i6mo, 
$1.25. 


In  Collaboration  with  Mrs.  Wiggin. 

THE  STORY  HOUR.    A  Book  for  the  Home  and 
Kindergarten.     Illustrated.     i6mo,  $1.00. 

CHILDREN'S  RIGHTS.  A  Book  of  Nursery  Logic. 
i6mo,  $1.00. 

THE  REPUBLIC  OF  CHILDHOOD.     In  three  vol- 
umes, each,  i6mo,  $1.00. 
I.    FROEBEL'S   GIFTS. 
II.    FROEBEL'S  OCCUPATIONS. 

III.    KINDERGARTEN  PRINCIPLES  AND  PRAC- 
TICE. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
Boston  and  New  York. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE 
FUTURE 


BY 


NORA  ARCHIBALD 

joint  author  with  kate  douglas  wiggin 
of  childhood,"  "  the  story  hou 
"children's  rights" 


"  The  will  of  the  present  is  the  key  to 
and  moral  character  is  eternal  destiny." 


414 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

1900 


COPYRIGHT,   1898 

BY  NORA   ARCHIBALD  SMITH 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


TO 

A  MOTHER  OF  THE  PRESENT 

FROM 

A   CHILD  OF  THE  PAST 


M832997 


CONTENTS  1 

PAGB 

The  Study  of  Childbkn 1 

Training  for  Parenthood       ...         .20 

The  Charm  of  the  Lily 31 

The  Priestly  Office 41 

Sand  and  the  Children 57 

A  Dumb  Devil 67 

An  Unwalled  City 76 

Perilous  Times 85 

A  Deviser  of  Mischiefs 92 

"  Tell  me  a  Story  " 101 

The  Authentic  in  Kindergarten  Training     .  114 

The  Gospel  of  Work 127 

The  Brotherhood  of  Saint  Tumbler       .        .  143 
The  Kindergarten  in  Neighborhood  Work      158 

^  Many  of  the  above  essays  first  appeared  in  The  Out- 
look and  in  Table  Talk,  and  are  here  reprinted  by  the  kind 
permission  of  the  editors.  Most  of  them  are  considerably 
extended  from  their  original  form,  while  others  have  been 
•written  for  this  volume. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  FUTURE 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

"  Love  the  child,  and  he  will  reveal  himself  to  you." 

When  a  thoughtful  child  was  asked  one 
day  why  a  certain  tree  in  the  garden  was  so 
crooked,  he  responded  that  he  "s'posed 
somebody  must  have  stepped  on  it  when  it 
was  a  little  fellow."  The  answer  was  so 
philosophic,  so  unexpectedly  rich  in  its  in- 
sight into  causes,  that  the  questioner  may 
well  be  pardoned  if  he  was  somewhat  dis- 
mayed, and  regarded  his  companion  as  an- 
other example  of  the  "  seers  blest," 

"  In  whom  those  truths  do  rest 
Which  we  are  toiling  all  our  lives  to  find." 

It  was  but  a  chance  remark,  one  of  those 
wise  things  which  children  often  surprise  us 
by  saying,  but  you  remember  it  was  the  bow 


2  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDBEN 

drawn  at  a  venture  that  slew  the  great  King 
Ahab.  Not  trees  alone  are  bent  and  twisted 
in  their  growing  by  carelessness  and  igno- 
rance, and  many  a  distorted  human  life  at- 
tests the  truth  of  the  child's  saying. 

It  is  only  another  proof  of  the  infinite 
scope  of  the  Divine  plan  that  such  countless 
myriads  of  human  beings  can  be  born  into 
the  world,  all  built  on  the  same  general  lines, 
and  yet  differing  so  widely  one  from  another 
as  to  need  for  their  best  development  climates 
and  training  as  dissimilar  as  do  the  polar 
bear  and  the  bird  of  paradise.  Through 
carelessness,  through  ignorance,  through 
dullness  —  sometimes,  indeed,  through  sheer 
wickedness  —  many  children  are  no  better 
understood  by  their  parents  than  if  they 
were  natives  of  another  planet.  Truth  to 
tell,  they  often  appear  to  many  of  us  to  be 
strangers  and  foreigners,  though  how  the 
tiny  creatures,  born  of  our  own  flesh  and 
blood,  and  nurtured  at  our  hearthstones,  can 
so  differ  from  one  another  and  from  their 
parents  is  a   problem  to  puzzle  the  wisest. 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDEEN  3 

Yet,  whether  this  be  due  to  heredity,  to  pre- 
natal influences,  or  to  the  old,  old  theory  of 
the  transmigration  of  souls,  the   facts   are 
there,  as  solid  as  the  hills  themselves.    Every 
child  differs  from  every  other  child  as  much 
as  one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in 
glory,  and  not  until  this  is  understood,  and 
training  is  given  to  suit  the  particular  case, 
can  we  be   sure   that  the  budding  human 
life  will  not  be  kiUed,  bent,  or  stunted  by 
misapplied  force.     Because  the  father  was 
well  brought  up  by  a  particular  system,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  will  succeed 
with  the  son;  because  the  eldest  daughter 
has  flourished  under  certain  discipline,  we 
need  not  therefore  conclude  that  it  will  fit 
the  youngest  equally  well.     The  polar  bear 
must  be  fed  on  something  besides  seeds  and 
fruits  if  he  is  to  be  a  model  of  his  kind,  and 
the  bird  of  paradise  will  pine  away  before  he 
will  reconcile  himself  to  a  diet  of  raw  flesh. 
We  cannot  devise   a   plan  of   education 
suited  to  the  normal  child,  and  then  wind 
up   our   own   little  one  and  '^^  him,"  as 


4  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

Kichter  says,  "exactly  as  if  he  were  an 
astronomical,  hundred-yeared  chronometer 
warranted  to  show  the  hours  and  positions 
of  the  planets  quite  accurately  long  after 
our  death."  We  cannot  do  this,  for  proba- 
bly he  is  not  a  normal  child.  H^'^nnay  be 
an  average  one,  but  that  is  quite  a  different 
thing,  and  it  is  our  first  and  highest  busi- 
ness in  life  to  find  out  his  personal  equation 
as  far  as  we  may,  —  that  is,  to  discover  how 
near  he  comes  to  the  standard  in  one  direc- 
tion, how  far  he  overlaps  it  in  another, 
whether  he  needs  free  rein  here,  curbing 
there,  encouragement  in  one  line,  or  reproof 
in  a  second.  True,  parents  and  teachers 
have  always  known  this  to  Jbe  necessary,  but 
knowing  one's  duty  is  noTSynonymous  with 
performing  it,  on  this  planet  at  any  rate. 

The  mother's  intuition  in  regard  to  her 
child  is,  of  course,  a  great  help  toward 
understanding  him,  though  intuition  is  ob- 
viously not  enough  for  this  line  of  work ;  it 
needs  to  be  supplemented  by  thought  and 
study,  by  careful  observation  and  record. 


TEE  STUDY  OF  CHILDEEN  5 

Child-study  as  a  science  is  the  newest  of 
new  things,  in  this  country  at  least,  —  only 
about  ten  years  old  as  yet  in  any  distinct 
and  systematic  form,  although  Dr.  Stanley 
Hall  began  his  public  work  in  this  direction 
in  1880.  When  we  reflect,  however,  that 
1870  is  the  Anno  Domini  of  educational 
development  in  most  countries,  and  that 
the  first  chair  of  pedagogics  in  any  of  our 
colleges  and  universities  was  established 
little  more  than  a  decade  ago,  we  cannot 
wonder  that  the  allied  sciences  should  have 
been  somewhat  slow  in  gaining  public 
recognition.  Before  1880,  Perez  in  France, 
Preyer  in  Germany,  Darwin  in  England, 
with  other  less  known  European  scientists, 
had  begun  to  make  careful  observations  of 
children  on  various  lines,  and  their  books 
on  the  subject  are  of  much  value.  No  doubt 
they  helped  to  awaken  public  interest  in 
the  subject  in  the  United  States,  though  on 
the  whole,  as  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  move- 
ment has  said,  "  child-study  is,  in  a  peculiar 
sense,  American." 


6  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDBEN 

Perez's  "First  Three  Years  of  Child- 
hood" and  Preyer's  "  Tbe  Infant  Mind" 
are  wonderful  records  of  infant  develop- 
ment, and  by  similar  labors  many  mothers 
might  become  invaluable  helpers  in  the  gen- 
eral work,  as  well  as  serve  their  own  inter- 
ests meantime,  by  gaining  a  fuller  compre- 
hension of  their  children. 

Friedrich  Froebel,  the  father  of  child- 
study,  as  early  aa  1841  desired  mothers  to 
record  in  writing  the  most  important  facts 
about  each  separate  child.  "  It  seems  to 
me  most  necessary,"  he  said,  "  for  the  com- 
prehension and  for  the  true  treatment  of 
child-nature,  that  such  observations  should 
be  made  public  from  time  to  time,  in  order 
that  children  may  become  better  and  better 
understood  in  their  manifestations,  and  may 
therefore  be  more  rightly  treated,  and  that 
true  care  and  observation  of  unsophisticated 
childhood  may  ever  increase." 

"  Life  books  "  according  to  Froebel's  sug- 
gestions have  been  kept  of  late  years  by 
many  mothers,  and  if  all  observations  are 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILBBEN  7 

recorded  while  still  fresh,  and  effort  is  made 
that  they  shall  be  thoroughly  impartial,  they 
can  but  be  of  inestimable  worth  to  the 
child,  to  the  mother,  and  perhaps,  inciden- 
tally, to  science.  In  turning  the  pages  of  a 
book  of  this  kind,  one  is  struck,  possibly, 
by  the  frequent  manifestation  of  such  and 
such  a  disagreeable  trait,  not  a  pleasant 
thing  for  a  fond  parent  to  note,  but  much 
more  pleasant  to  discover  now,  when  there 
is  some  hope  of  correcting  it,  than  to  have 
it  to  struggle  with  by  and  by  when  it  has 
grown  a  giant  in  strength.  Again,  we  may 
note  early  tendencies  in  some  specific  direc- 
tion, literary,  musical,  artistic,  mechanical, 
which  are  of  great  service  in  shaping  the 
child's  future  career ;  or,  results  following 
well-intentioned  discipline  which  show  it  to 
have  been  entirely  mistaken. 

Careful  records  of  the  physical  develop- 
ment of  the  child,  his  growth  in  height  and 
weight,  his  body  girths  at  different  ages,  the 
order  in  which  his  muscular  movements  and 
their  coordinations   appear,  are  frequently 


8  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

of  special  value  to  the  family  physician,  and 
also  sometimes  serve  to  indicate  coming  ill- 
ness, or  some  lurking  trouble  which,  though 
plainly  shown  by  stoppage  of  growth  or  loss 
of  weight,  may  not  for  a  long  time  declare 
itself  in  any  other  manner.  The  unfold- 
ing of  the  senses  in  their  order,  the  pro- 
gressive manifestations  of  the  emotions,  the 
earliest  signs  of  intellectual  life,  the  devel- 
opment of  language,  —  all  these  afford  rich 
fields  for  observation.  Mothers  who  are 
in  doubt  as  to  just  what  and  how  to  ob- 
serve will  find  great  help  in  Mrs.  Felix 
Adler's  little  hand-book,  "  Hints  for  the 
Scientific  Observation  and  Study  of  Chil- 
dren," in  Mrs.  E.  R.  Jackman's  "  Outlines 
for  Child -Study,"  in  the  Topical  SyUabi 
sent  out  from  Clark  University,  and  those 
issued  by  the  various  associations  and  maga- 
zines devoted  to  the  subject,  while  they  may 
also  get  some  valuable  ideas  from  Professor 
A.  D.  Cromwell's  "Practical  Child-Study." 
It  need  not  be  supposed  that  a  creature 
thus  carefully  observed  is  held  under  a  micro- 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  9 

scope  for  the  process,  like  some  rare  insect 
or  botanical  specimen.  The  essence  of  the 
observation  is  that  the  subject  shall  be  quite 
unconscious  that  he  is  being  watched.  Of 
course,  as  an  infant  he  knows  nothing  of  the 
record  made,  and  as  he  grows  older  it  is 
desirable  that  he  should  still  be  kept  igno- 
rant in  regard  to  it.  Undoubtedly  it  is  a 
difficult  task  to  make  the  observations  care- 
fully, veraciously,  impartially,  and  still  more 
difficult  to  record  them  before  they  become 
dim  and  uncertain.  It  would  obviously  be 
impossible  for  an  ignorant  woman  to  make 
observations  with  scientific  method  and  dis- 
crimination ;  it  would  be  still  more  out  of 
the  question  for  the  unfortunate  mother 
whose  nurslings  must  be  left  to  the  care  of 
others  while  she  earns  their  bread  away 
from  home,  or  for  that  wretched  martyr  of 
the  sweating-shops  who  toils  all  day  and  far 
into  the  night  to  keep  the  breath  of  life  in 
the  beings  whom  she  has  brought  into  the 
world. 

And  here  is  just  the  opportunity  of   all 


10  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

others  where  women  may  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  one  another.  If  you  are  so  blessed 
as  to  hold  the  true  position  of  a  mother  and 
be  the  constant  companion  of  your  child, 
you  may  perhaps,  by  observing  and  record- 
ing his  every  manifestation,  be  of  the  great- 
est service  in  the  future  to  some  neglected 
little  one  whom  you  never  saw  and  never 
will  see.  Whoever  has  learned  to  under- 
stand one  child  thoroughly,  whoever  has 
faithfully  recorded,  as  far  as  she  was  able 
to  note  them,  each  step  in  his  physical  and 
psychical  development,  has  been  a  benefac- 
tor to  all  children,  if  her  record  is  so  made 
as  to  be  intelligible  to  others.  "  It  is  prob- 
able," says  Sully,  "  that  inquiries  into  the 
beginnings  of  human  culture,  the  origin  of 
language,  of  primitive  ideas  and  institutions, 
might  derive  much  more  help  than  they 
have  hitherto  from  a  close  scrutiny  of  the 
events  of  childhood." 

If  this  is  so,  how  immeasurably  may  the 
education  of  the  future,  physical,  mental, 
and  moral,  gain  by  the  help  of  intelligent 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  11 

women  if  they  once  set  themselves  thor- 
oughly to  understand  the  children  God  has 
given  them. 

But  if  this  study  is  to  accomplish  all 
that  its  devotees  are  prophesying,  not  mo- 
thers only,  but  physicians  and  teachers  must 
work  together  in  harmony.  The  observation 
of  children  must  not  cease  at  the  threshold 
of  kindergarten  and  school,  for  here  some 
of  the  worst  offenses  against  these  little  ones 
have  been  committed. 

Take  the  school-room  itself  and  discover 
to  your  dismay  how  many  ailments  may  be 
traced  directly  to  overheating,  overcrowd- 
ing, faulty  ventilation,  bad  drainage,  and 
defective  lighting.  Ask  yourself  if  it  is 
not  a  disgrace  to  civilization  that  maladies 
should  exist,  familiarly  known  and  spoken 
of  as  "school-bred  diseases"?  Ought  we 
not  to  blush  when  we  seat  our  children,  or 
those  of  anybody  else,  on  a  bench  or  at  a 
desk  where  it  is  impossible  to  work  with  the 
body  in  a  proper  position  ?  Ought  we  to 
allow  for  a  moment  in  our  schools  any  sys- 


12  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDEEN 

tern  of  writing  which  is  likely  to  produce 
curvature  of  the  spine,  and  which  does  pro- 
duce it  in  a  large  number  of  eases  ?  Have 
we  not  cause  to  be  ashamed  if  we  force  chil- 
dren by  law  to  attend  the  public  schools, 
and  then  provide  them  with  books  so  badly 
printed  that  they  permanently  injure  the 
eyes? 

These  are  some  of  the  indictments  as  to 
books  and  school-rooms.  Let  us  see  how  we 
may  be  judged  when  we  consider  school  cur- 
ricula and  systems  of  management.  Note, 
of  course,  that  all  of  these  are  not  by  any 
means  bad,  many  of  them  in  fact  being  well 
suited  to  some  children,  but  the  danger  in 
their  application  lies  in  that  they  are  not 
suited  to  all.  The  great  fault  in  our  school 
system  is  that  we  try  to  educate  pupils  in 
battalions.  We  do  not  individualize  suffi- 
ciently, and  the  one  sweeping  reform  which 
we  hope  that  child-study  may  make,  if  it 
does  nothing  else,  is  to  open  people's  eyes  to 
the  fact  that  we  cannot  grow  children  as 
we  can  string-beans,  planting   them  at  ex- 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  13 

actly  the  same  depth,  furnishing  them  with 
the  same  fertilizers,  and  providing  them 
on  the  same  day  with  twelve  dozen  dozen 
bean-poles  to  run  on,  all  of  the  same  length 
and  diameter,  and  stuck  straight  into  the 
ground  at  rigidly  mathematical  intervals. 

In  many  of  the  French  and  German  pub- 
lic schools  careful  physical  measurements 
are  always  made  and  recorded  when  the 
child  enters,  are  periodically  renewed,  and 
examined  regularly  by  a  physician.  The 
sight  and  hearing  are  also  tested,  and  advice 
is  given  to  the  parents  if  anything  is  found 
amiss.  The  child  in  the  French  primary 
school  also  keeps  a  copy-book  (cahier  men- 
sueV)^  in  which  once  every  month  he  writes 
out  his  work  for  the  day.  He  is  usually 
freshly  washed  and  dressed  for  this  grand 
occasion,  and  makes  his  notes  in  his  very 
best  style,  knowing  that  they  will  be  filed 
away  as  a  record  of  his  progress.  Persons 
interested  in  the  child's  mental  and  physi- 
cal development  can  therefore  turn  to  these 
books  at  any  time  and  know  quite  clearly 
where  he  stands. 


14  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

These  physical  measurements  have  lately- 
been  begun  in  some  schools  in  this  country, 
and  tests  of  the  relative  motor-abilities  of 
children,  their  fatigue-points,  etc.,  have  been 
undertaken,  while  the  testing  of  the  senses 
is  now  quite  common. 

It  is  objected  by  those  who  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  child-study  that  the  teacher  who 
pursues  such  investigations  will  have  little 
time  left  for  instruction.  Push  the  argu- 
ment to  its  extreme  and  grant  the  suppo- 
sition, and  it  may  be  replied  that  a  little 
instruction  given  under  proper  conditions 
to  a  child  whose  mental  and  physical  pecu- 
liarities are  thoroughly  known  is  vastly  bet- 
ter than  hours  spent,  for  instance,  in  giving 
oral  science-lessons  across  a  large  room  to 
a  boy  who  is  two  thirds  deaf,  or  a  whole 
year's  blackboard  work  in  numbers  to  one 
too  near-sighted  to  see  a  foot  beyond  his 
desk.  This  is  what  the  Spaniards  call 
"preaching  in  the  desert,"  and  to  prove 
that  it  must  be  an  elocutionary  exercise 
much  practiced  in  this  country,  well-attested 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  15 

figures  can  be  furnished  to  show  that  be- 
tween one  fifth  and  one  fourth  of  all  the 
pupils  in  our  public  schools  have  defective 
hearing,  and  in  at  least  one  city  of  the 
United  States  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  five 
thousand  school-children  were  found  to  have 
defective  vision. 

Numbers  of  so-called  "  dull "  and  "  back- 
ward "  pupils  are  such  only  because  of  their 
impaired  senses ;  and  when  this  is  recog- 
nized, a  physician's  advice  obtained,  and 
conditions  changed  to  meet  their  needs,  they 
become  as  bright  as  others.  Many  of  the 
school  records  of  such  cases  are  intensely 
pathetic  in  the  glimpses  they  give  of  the 
long  and  bitter  suffering  which  these  mis- 
understood human  creatures  must  have  en- 
dured before  the  new  science  came  to  their 
aid. 

Not  defective  children  alone,  however, 
suffer  from  bad  school  methods,  for  which, 
by  the  way,  we  are  more  to  blame  than  the 
teachers.  It  is  well  known  that  a  nervously 
overwrought   child,  either  in  school  or  at 


16  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDBEN 

home,  becomes  weak-willed  and  vacillating, 
and  that  mental  excitement  and  strain,  such 
as  are  caused  by  high-pressure  examinations 
and  rigid  marking,  are  marvelous  producers 
of  chorea  and  hysteria.  Continued  over- 
exertion in  early  years  means  weakened  pos- 
sibilities in  adult  life.  Forcing  a  child  pre- 
maturely into  the  conventional  studies  of 
the  school  may  cause  arrested  development ; 
and,  finally,  out-of-school  study,  so  univer- 
sally required,  is  most  injurious  in  the  brain- 
weariness  and  loss  of  sleep  it  occasions. 
A  fine,  strong,  well-balanced  child  can,  it 
is  true,  go  through  almost  any  system  of 
education  and  come  out  unscathed,  but  how 
about  those  who  are  mentally,  physically, 
or  morally  handicapped  for  the  ordeal  ?  Is 
it  our  desire  that  "even  the  least  of  these 
little  ones  shall  perish  "  ? 

If  the  mother  could  put  into  the  teacher's 
hands  when  she  brought  her  child  to  school 
a  brief  summary  of  his  threefold  develop- 
ment for  the  first  six  years  of  life,  making 
particular  mention  of  his  habits,  disposition, 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDBEN  17 

and  defects ;  if  the  teacher  could  supplement 
this  by  a  series  of  questions,  such  as  are  used 
in  some  parts  of  Germany,  to  determine 
roughly  the  contents  of  the  mind  before  be- 
ginning regular  instruction  —  if  these  two 
things  could  always  be  done,  there  would  be 
a  good  working  basis  on  which  to  found  edu- 
cation. Physical  measurements  made  in  the 
school,  sense-tests,  etc.,  would  follow,  and  the 
teacher  besides  recording  them  would  also 
keep  a  record  of  the  pupil  along  the  mental 
and  moral  lines.  With  these  in  hand,  what 
an  insight  into  individual  peculiarities  would 
be  gained,  how  much  more  wisely  and  sym- 
pathetically children  would  be  dealt  with, 
how  much  more  definite  the  work  would 
be,  and  how  close  and  warm  would  become 
the  relations  between  teacher  and  taught! 
It  wiU  be  objected  that  no  living  man  or 
woman  could  do  this  work  for  a  class  of 
sixty  members  or  more  save  in  the  sketchi- 
est way.  Very  true,  and  when  this  truth 
has  once  sunk  deep  enough  into  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  thinking  people,  the  difficulty 
will  doubtless  be  seen  and  removed. 


18  THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN 

It  is  along  all  these  lines  that  the  help  of 
women  is  urgently  needed.  If  the  women's 
clubs  of  this  country,  now  so  strong  in  num- 
bers, so  vigorous  and  influential,  would  d6- 
vote  themselves  for  a  time  absolutely  and 
entirely  to  the  study  of  children  and  their 
needs,  to  the  working  children,  the  pauper 
children,  the  feeble-minded  and  epileptic, 
the  neglected  and  truant,  the  delinquent; 
if  they  would  investigate  school  hygiene 
and  architecture,  school-bred  diseases,  kin- 
dergarten work,  its  defects  and  virtues; 
if  they  would  study  normal  as  well  as  ab- 
normal children  in  order  to  know  what  train- 
ing each  should  rightfully  receive,  what  a 
wonderful  stimulus  would  be  given  to  educa- 
tion ! 

In  urging  upon  women  subjects  connected 
with  child-study  for  investigation  and  discus- 
sion, it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  general 
culture  is  therefore  undervalued,  or  a  wide 
knowledge  of  art,  literature,  music,  philoso- 
phy, and  science  decried.  All  these  things 
are   undoubtedly  necessary  to   full   human 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  19 

development;  but  the  children  of  the  world 
are  in  the  direct  and  particular  charge  of 
the  women  of  the  world,  and  this  charge 
must  not  be  neglected,  though  all  else  be 
laid  aside  and  forgotten. 


TRAINING  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

"  It 's  a  great  pity  to  see  so  many  people  without  any 
children  to  educate  them." 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  volume 
on  Education,  published  about  thirty  years 
ago,  remarked  that  the  training  of  that  day, 
both  in  home  and  school,  seemed  best  fitted 
to  a  race  of  celibates,  and  predicted  that 
the  philosopher  of  the  future,  pondering  on 
the  educational  records  of  our  time,  would 
greatly  marvel  at  the  apparent  absence  of 
all  preparation  for  the  future  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  parenthood. 

That  this  is  stiU  measurably  true  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  though  much  improvement 
in  this  direction  has  been  made  in  the  edu- 
cation of  women,  at  least,  in  the  last  twenty 
years.  The  whole  matter  seems  so  perfectly 
clear  when  once  it  is  forcibly  presented  that 
one  wonders  how  it  could  ever  have  been 


TRAINING  FOB  PARENTHOOD  21 
passed  over  or  neglected.  Were  the  duties 
of  parenthood  only  "  remote  contingencies," 
as  Mr.  Spencer  says,  it  would,  perhaps,  be 
wise  not  to  spend  much  time  in  preparation 
for  them ;  but  as  they  are  constantly  as- 
sumed, why  not  give  them  some  considera- 
tion in  the  educational  plan  ?  The  training 
required  would  not  be  absolutely  useless 
should  its  subject  live  and  die  a  celibate. 
Spending  years  in  the  patient  study  of  min- 
ing when  your  future  career  is  to  be  that  of 
an  aeronaut  might  seem,  indeed,  a  fruitless 
expenditure  of  labor ;  but  the  parental  vir- 
tues can  never  be  out  of  place,  however  life 
may  shape  itself,  for  they  are  such  as  belong 
to  the  well-rounded,  well-developed  char- 
acter. 

We  cannot  entirely  rely  upon  the  parental 
instinct  in  this  matter,  be  it  ever  so  strong 
and  pure.  Although  it  may  be  trusted  in 
the  normal  human  being  so  far  as  love  and 
protection  are  concerned,  the  rearing  of 
children  in  our  complex  modern  civilization 
is  so  delicate  and  difficult   a  matter  as  to 


22         TRAINING  FOB  PABENTHOOD 

necessitate  the  development  of  "blind  rea- 
son "  into  a  higher  faculty  which  shall  see 
clear-eyed  the  pathway  it  must  tread.  If  the 
training  is  to  be  given,  then  the  earlier  be- 
gun the  better,  since  it  is  not  directing  the 
energies  into  a  special  channel,  but  rather  a 
broadening  and  strengthening  of  the  whole 
nature. 

All  roads  proverbially  lead  to  Rome,  and 
consideration  of  this  subject  brings  us  in- 
evitably to  the  kindergarten  and  what  it 
does  in  training  the  future  parent.  As  well 
try  to  write  a  story  without  a  first  sentence, 
as  well  attempt  to  frame  a  melody  without 
an  opening  bar,  as  to  omit  the  kindergarten 
when  considering  preparation  for  life  in  any 
phase.  It  is  there,  and  it  cannot  be  ignored ; 
the  story  cannot  be  written  nor  the  melody 
composed  till  the  beginning  is  made. 

You  smile  at  the  idea  of  cultivating  the 
parental  virtues  in  a  tiny  creature  hardly 
old  enough  to  realize  his  own  personality ; 
and  it  would  indeed  be  absurd  if  the  tiny 
creature  did  not  clearly  show  you,  in  his 


V 


TRAINING  FOB  PABENTHOOD  23 
unconscious  plays,  that  the  deep,  indwelling 
father,  mother  instinct  is  already  there.  The 
kindergarten,  through  its  marvelous  system 
of  songs  and  games,  addresses  this  instinct 
from  the  very  beginning.  The  finger-songs 
commonly  show  three  generations  in  sweet 
relation,  —  the  grandmother  and  grand- 
father, the  good  mother,  the  kind  father, 
and  the  little  child  close  beside  them ;  and 
many  of  the  representations  of  animal  life 
deal  with  the  nurture  and  wise  care  of  the 
young. 

If  a  bird  game  is  being  played,  one  par- 
ent broods  the  younglings  in  the  nest,  the 
other  flies  over  wood  and  field  in  search  of 
their  food,  while  both  have  united  in  gather- 
ing materials  for  the  family  home.  When 
the  little  ones  are  fully  feathered,  the  par- 
ents carefully  teach  them  to  fly,  and  abun- 
dant stories  and  poems  further  illustrate  the 
lesson  taught.  The  trade  games  —  carpen- 
ter, cooper,  blacksmith,  whatever  they  may 
be  —  not  only  inculcate  the  duty  of  f aithf id 
labor,  but  show  that  its  fruits  should  not 


24         TRAINING  FOB  PARENTHOOD 

be  spent  on  self  alone.  "For  wife  and 
children  dear  at  home,  I  'm  toiling  all  day 
long,"  says  the  song,  and  the  child  swings 
his  hammer  lustily,  feeling  that  he  is  work- 
ing for  his  dear  ones  as  well  as  for  himself. 

Since  he  cannot  govern  others  who  has 
never  learned  to  rule  his  own  spirit,  the  kin- 
dergarten strives  to  teach  self-government, 
knowing  it  to  be  a  vital  element  of  character. 
It  aims  to  teach,  by  methods  quite  within 
the  child's  grasp,  the  inexorable  relation  of 
cause  and  effect,  and  shows  him  simply  that 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also 
reap.  It  begins  to  give  him  an  understand- 
ing of  the  interdependence  of  all  life,  and 
points  out  to  him  that  his  actions  are  to  be 
considered  not  only  in  regard  to  his  own  wel- 
fare, but  as  to  the  way  in  which  they  affect 
others.  It  further  cultivates  such  virtues  as 
self-respect  and  perseverance,  as  well  as  a 
willingness  to  help  in  bearing  the  burdens 
of  the  weak. 

And  what  does  the  future  parent  need 
more  than  a  strong  feeling  of  the  sacredness 


TRAINING  FOB  PARENTHOOD  25 
of  family  life  and  the  importance  of  wise 
care  of  the  young ;  a  knowledge  of  the  value 
of  labor  and  the  proper  use  of  its  rewards ; 
a  conviction  that  every  deed,  good  or  evil, 
must  have  its  consequence;  and  a  well- 
governed  spirit  realizing  relationship  to  the 
world  ? 

Alas !  many  more  things  are  required, 
but  we  need  not  be  discouraged,  for  the 
kindergarten  will  aid  in  bringing  them  into 
being. 

Does  the  parent  we  are  training  need  a 
stock  of  that  patience  which  is  "a  good 
root,"  an  unfailing  store  of  love,  and  a  fer- 
vor of  spiritual  life  which  shall  warm  every 
shivering  soul  it  touches  ?  Ah,  these  are 
the  product  of  years  of  noble  living ;  but  the 
kindergarten  can  breathe  around  the  child- 
ish life  so  soft  and  gentle  an  atmosphere 
that  the  virtues  which  God  has  implanted 
in  every  human  heart  must  needs  wake  and 
stir  and  struggle  upward  toward  the  light. 

A  wonderful  educational  idea,  the  kinder- 
garten, you  say.    Yes,  truly,  a  revelation  of 


26  TBAINING  FOB  PABENTHOOD 
strength  and  beauty.  A  blessed  place  where 
life  can  be  so  nourished !  A  blessed  place 
indeed  —  one  of  the  gateways  to  the  millen- 
nium !  Dwell  therein  long  enough,  and  you 
may  not  dare  to  doubt  it. 

You  may  think  what  is  claimed  for  Froe- 
bel's  system  here  the  effervescence  of  en- 
thusiasm, but  I  speak  that  I  do  know,  and 
from  the  standpoint  of  experience.  If  en- 
thusiasm can  live  and  grow  and  wax  ever 
stronger  through  years  of  practical  work 
and  trial,  then  it  would  seem,  even  to  the 
prejudiced  observer,  that  there  must  be 
good  ground  for  it  to  grow  in.  Undoubt- 
edly there  are  kindergartens  and  kindergar- 
tens; the  spirit  is  not  the  same  in  all  of 
them ;  but  it  is  no  discredit  to  the  heavenly 
rectitude  of  the  compass  if  one  has  never 
learned  to  steer  one's  ship  by  it. 

Yet  I  am  not  such  a  fanatic  as  to  claim 
that  all  the  noble  qualities  mentioned  can 
be  fully  developed  in  the  kindergarten.  I 
only  say  that  the  climate  thereof  is  a  genial 
one,  where  virtues  bud  as  in  their  native 


TRAINING  FOB  PABENTHOOD  27 
air,  and  that  if  the  home  influences  are  fa- 
vorable, and  the  succeeding  gardener  a  wise 
one,  the  little  plant  can  but  keep  on  urging 
toward  the  sun. 

The  school  as  commonly  conducted  is  not 
now,  and  has  not  been  in  the  past,  especially 
favorable  to  the  development  of  the  virtues 
needed  by  the  future  parent.  Law  has  com- 
monly been  imposed  from  without,  rather 
than  developed  from  within,  and  the  system 
of  credits  and  marking  has  fostered  a  greedy 
spirit  of  emulation,  rather  than  respect  for 
work  for  the  work's  sake  and  a  willingness 
to  aid  the  weaker  brother.  That  this  has 
not  been  true  of  all  schools  goes  without 
saying,  and  meantime  a  leaven  is  working 
which  will  in  time  change  these  matters. 
May  I  be  pardoned  if  I  suggest  that  pos- 
sibly the  kindergarten  is  this  leaven,  and 
that  its  greatest  claim  to  consideration  in 
the  future  may,  perhaps,  be  found  to  lie  in 
the  influence  it  has  exerted  on  higher  edu- 
cation ? 

Nowadays,  when  that  higher  education  is 


28  TRAINING  FOB  PARENTHOOD 
completed,  the  young  woman  frequently  pur- 
sues some  special  course  or  courses,  all  emi- 
nently practical  and  useful  in  future  mother- 
hood, should  she  attain  unto  that  dignity. 
She  goes  to  a  cooking-school,  she  takes  up 
the  scientific  study  of  dressmaking,  she  at- 
tends lectures  on  Housekeeping  as  a  Liberal 
Art,  on  Sanitation  and  Plumbing,  on  First 
Aid  to  the  Injured,  etc.  She  studies  the 
treatment  of  the  sick  and  the  care  of  inva- 
lids, or,  perhaps  best  of  all,  since  all  these 
things  may  be  added  unto  it,  she  takes  a 
complete  course  of  kindergarten  training. 
A  kindergarten  training-school  is  the  only 
place  where  a  young  woman  can  get  a  spe- 
cific preparation  for  motherhood.  During 
the  year  or  two  of  study  required,  the  pupil 
will  not  only  gain  a  fund  of  information 
regarding  the  wise  treatment  of  infants  and 
young  children,  but  by  daily  practice,  fre- 
quently among  the  poorer  classes,  will  add 
to  her  instinctive  tenderness  and  sympathy 
the  wisdom,  good  judgment,  firmness,  self- 
restraint,  and   devotion  to   ultimate   ideals 


TRAINING  FOR  PARENTHOOD  29 
needed  by  the  true  mother.  Nor  need  she 
fear,  be  she  an  absolutely  predestinate  spin- 
ster, that  any  of  this  work  will  be  wasted ; 
for,  failing  offspring  of  her  own,  there  is  no 
dearth  of  the  world's  forsaken  children  who 
hunger  and  thirst  for  her  loving  services. 

And  what  is  the  future  father  doing  mean- 
time ?  Is  he  preparing  for  his  possible  re- 
sponsibilities ?  is  he  strengthening  his  shoul- 
ders for  the  burdens  which  may  some  time 
be  laid  upon  them  ?  or  is  one  parent,  if  that 
be  a  good  one,  supposed  to  be  enough  in  a 
family  ? 

With  all  the  educational  agencies  at  our 
command,  could  we  produce  well-rounded 
characters,  self-controlled,  self-governing, 
abounding  in  love  and  in  aspiration  toward 
the  ideal,  convinced  with  heart-conviction  of 
the  responsibility  of  each  to  all  and  all  to 
God  —  could  we  do  all  this,  nor  neglect  the 
cultivation  of  the  imagination  and  the  rea- 
son, nor  that  knowledge  which  is  gained  from 
books,  we  should  produce  the  ideal  parent, 
who  is  after  all  the  ideal  human  being.    But 


30         TRAINING  FOB  PARENTHOOD 

none  of  these  things  may  be  done  without 
the  cooperation  of  the  ideal  home ;  and  the 
ideal  home  is  not  yet,  nor  will  be,  until 
some  seventh  wave  of  humanity  has  rolled 
the  race  onward,  far  beyond  its  present  halt- 
ing-place. 


THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY 

"  He  who  takes  the  child  by  the  hand  takes  the  mother 
by  the  heart." 

There  is  a  story  somewhere  of  a  humble 
woman  who  found  on  her  table  one  day  a 
fair  white  lily  in  a  sparkling  crystal  vase. 
She  dwelt  with  rapture  on  the  purity  of  the 
flower  and  the  exquisite  lines  of  the  cup  that 
held  it,  but  noting  that  the  light  from  the 
dusty  window  illumined  it  but  faintly,  she 
hastened  to  wash  the  glass.  The  sun  then 
streamed  bravely  in  through  the  brilliant 
panes  and  showed  only  too  plainly  the  con- 
dition of  the  floor.  This  remedied,  the  walls 
begged  for  attention,  and  the  charm  of  the 
lily  worked  until  the  whole  house  was  set  in 
fairest  order. 

Has  not  the  kindergarten  been  a  lily 
whose  perfume  and  beauty  have  been  a 
magic   spell  working   here,  working  there, 


32  THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY 

changing,  beautifying  everywhere  ?  At  first 
we  thought  of  Froebel's  principles  as  applied 
merely  to  babies  of  three  to  six  years,  and 
were  absorbed  in  their  beauty,  their  adapta- 
tion to  childhood,  their  unerring  adjustment 
of  means  to  ends.  Then,  as  we  studied 
and  thought  and  strove  to  clear  away  all 
obstruction  between  us  and  the  light,  the 
lily  shone  revealed  in  greater  fairness,  and 
we  knew  that  its  charm  had  only  half  been 
felt  by  us  at  first.  What  it  accomplished 
for  babies  showed  us  what  might  be  done  for 
older  children,  for  young  girls,  and  finally 
for  the  home  and  for  the  parents. 

So  as  an  outgrowth  of  Froebel's  principles 
kitchen-gardens,  housekeepers'  classes,  and 
sewing-schools  were  started  ;  boys'  clubs  and 
libraries,  evening  classes  in  handiwork  of 
various  kinds  begun ;  training-schools  for 
kindergartners  opened,  and  the  work  for 
young  people  moved  on  rapidly.  But  by  and 
by  we  found  that  it  was  not  enough  to  go 
forward  in  a  straight  line,  nor  even  to 
broaden  out  like  the  sides  of  a  triangle  as  we 


THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY  33 

progressed ;  a  backward  reach  was  also  neces- 
sary, or,  better  still,  a  rotary  motion,  "  unity 
for  the  centre,  diversity  for  the  circumfer- 
ence," rippling  out  in  ever-widening  circles. 

We  found  that,  after  all,  we  knew  very    ^ 
little  about  the  child  if  we  did  not  also  know      ' 
his  environment,  his  home,  and  his  family. 
When  we  had  begun  to  make  acquaintance    -* 
with  these,  we  saw  at  once  that  the  highest 
benefits  of  the  kindergarten  could  never  be 
felt  by  the  child  unless  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  cooperation  between  parents  and 
kindergartner,  and   unless   there  was  some 
degree  of  intelligent  comprehension  in  the 
home  of  what  the  kindergarten  was  trying 
to  accomplish. 

Miss  Emily  Shirreff,  late  President  of  the 
London  Froebel  Society,  very  wisely  said 
in  a  recent  address :  "  At  a  later  period  a 
school  may  be  better  or  worse  than  the  home, 
and  the  boy  or  girl  may  realize  the  differ- 
ence and  bear  it  without  serious  loss;  but 
the  little  ones  are  yet  too  strange  to  this 
wonderful   world  to   understand   anything. 


84  THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY 

They  feel  spiritual  influences  as  they  feel 
the  sunshine  or  the  cold ;  but  the  natural 
growth  and  expansion  of  their  being  is  ar- 
rested if,  as  they  pass  from  kindergarten  to 
home,  they  pass  from  one  system  of  manage- 
ment to  another  ;  and  change  becomes  moral 
waste." 

This  was  instinctively  felt  by  the  thought- 
ful kindergartner,  and  instinct  became  in- 
sight as  meditation  and  experience  brought 
her  closer  to  the  heart  of  Froebel's  princi- 
ples. 

Do  not  suppose  for  a  moment  that  utter 
lack  of  sympathy  between  mother  and  kin- 
dergartner and  dense  ignorance  of  the  aims 
of  the  work  were,  or  are,  confined  to  the 
poorer  classes  and  to  the  homes  whence 
come  the  children  of  the  charity  kinder- 
gartens. Women  are  women,  you  know,  in 
every  rank  of  society,  and  very  probably 
there  are  as  many  shallow,  weak,  careless, 
stupid,  morally  obtuse  mothers  among  the 
rich  as  among  the  poor.  It  is  to  be  sup- 
posed that  the  Lord  sends  them  offspring  as 


THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY  35 

an  aid  in  their  salvation,  and  doubtless  the 
idea  is  a  good  one,  though  the  practical 
working  of  it  is  rather  hard  on  the  children. 

The  poor  mother  often  sends  her  child  to 
the  kindergarten  to  get  him  "  off  the  street," 
as  she  says  ;  the  well-to-do  mother  frequently 
does  the  same  thing  to  have  him  out  of  her 
way  for  a  time,  and  cheerfully  confesses  her 
motive.  Neither  parent,  perhaps,  really  be- 
lieves that  the  kindergarten  has  the  least 
moral  or  intellectual  influence  upon  her 
child,  but  she  knows  him  to  be  safe,  shel- 
tered, amused,  and  happy  for  a  certain  num- 
ber of  hours  each  day,  and  in  moments  of 
discouragement  the  kindergartner  is  glad 
that  she  acknowledges  even  this. 

One  would  not  wish  to  be  intolerant  of  the 
ignorance  on  educational  subjects  among  the 
rich  and  well-to-do,  although  the  faults  of 
people  who  ought  to  know  better  are  always 
additionally  exasperating ;  but  the  mothers 
of  the  educated  classes  are  commonly  more 
anxious  to  force  their  children  than  are  the 
ignorant  ones,  and  more  vociferous   as  to 


36  THE  CHAEM  OF  THE  LILY 

the  wickedness  of  not  teaching  them  to  read 
under  six  years.  Add  to  this  that  they  quite 
frequently  forbid  their  little  ones  to  do  any 
clay  modeling  lest  they  soil  their  hands  and 
aprons  ;  protest  against  their  crawling  on  the 
floor  as  caterpillars,  or  leaping  about  as 
frogs,  lest  they  wear  out  their  clothing ;  and 
—  crowning  absurdity !  —  often  decline  to 
send  their  children  to  kindergarten  at  all, 
"  if  that  Mrs.  Thingumbob's  children  are 
allowed  to  come,  too." 

Dear  high-caste  mothers  (in  a  land  where 
no  caste  is  supposed  to  exist),  forgive  me !  I 
know  most  of  you  are  saints  in  the  bud,  and 
some  of  you  have  even  begun  to  blossom.  I 
know  that  many  of  you  are  thoughtful,  ear- 
nest, intelligent,  and  conscientious,  but  a  few 
drops  of  acid  long  ago  entered  into  my  blood 
when  the  wicked  sisters  among  you  began  to 
checkmate  the  well-intentioned  kindergart- 
ner,  and  though  the  defects  I  have  men- 
tioned are  probably  only  the  shadow-side  of 
your  virtues,  yet  the  acid  is  still  in  my  veins, 
and  it  will  work  out  now  and  then.    And  do 


THE  CHABM  OF  THE  LILY  37 

not  think  that  I  make  little  of  the  ignorance, 
the  carelessness,  the  prejudice,  the  not  infre- 
quent brutality  of  the  mothers  of  the  "  other 
half."  I  know,  I  sadly  recognize  them  all ; 
but  are  not  such  women  something  more 
forgivable,  seeing  that  "  they  know  not  what 
they  do"? 

When,  then,  the  wise  kindergartner  real- 
ized the  want  of  connection  between  her 
little  kingdom  and  the  home,  she  felt  that 
the  parents  must  somehow  be  brought  into 
sympathy  with  her  plans,  the  general  result 
of  the  existing  conditions  on  the  child's  pro- 
gress being  much  like  that  of  the  far-famed 
frog  who  climbed  eight  feet  up  the  well  every 
day  and  slipped  back  seven  every  night. 

The  thoughtful  mother  doubtless  felt  with 
equal  keenness  this  disheartening  condition 
of  things,  and  the  help  she  brought  to  the 
partial  solution  of  the  problem  must  not  be 
ignored. 

As  soon,  however,  as  kindergartner  and 
mother  were  thoroughly  aroused  to  the  neces- 
sity of  cooperation,  they  began  to  cooperate 


38  THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY 

a  little,  and  the  work  immediately  received 
an  impetus  in  the  right  direction.  It  was 
never  difficult  to  interest  the  mother,  or  even 
the  elusive  father,  in  the  surface  beauty 
of  the  kindergarten,  the  dainty  work,  the 
charming  surroundings,  the  sweet  singing, 
the  harmonious  movements,  the  evident 
happiness.  All  these  any  bystander  may 
see,  but  to  persuade  him  to  look  below  the 
surface  and  discover  that  they  are  merely 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  inward  and 
spiritual  graces  —  ah,  that  is  another  matter ! 

Here  and  there,  then,  throughout  the 
country,  the  kindergartners  began  to  send 
special  invitations  to  the  parents  to  spend 
an  hour  or  so  with  the  children  and  watch 
them  at  their  work  and  play.  True,  the 
parents  had  been  told  before  that  they  would 
always  be  welcome  at  any  time,  but  as  "  any 
time  "  is  proverbially  "  no  time,"  the  invita- 
tions were  seldom  accepted. 

The  mother  who  had  never  been  quite 
able  heretofore  to  believe  that  Mary  made 
her  charming  inventions  entirely  by  herself. 


THE  CHABM  OF  THE  LILY  39 

now  saw  her  producing  them  and  absorbed  in 
the  joy  of  creation ;  the  one  who  had  never 
thought  of  the  kindergarten  as  anything  but 
play,  was  amazed  at  the  knowledge  of  math- 
ematics shown  by  Johnnie  as  he  folded  his 
papers  and  built  with  his  blocks  ;  while  both 
gained  some  valuable  new  information  as 
to  the  real  inner  nature  of  their  little  ones, 
as  they  watched  the  progress  of  the  games. 
The  kindergartners  gave  a  word  of  expla- 
nation occasionally  as  they  found  time,  or 
moved  aside  a  moment  for  a  bit  of  quiet 
talk  about  the  reasons  for  this  and  that; 
but  these  morsels  of  information  were  soon 
felt  to  be  far  from  satisfying,  and  all 
thoughtful  mothers  united  in  a  desire  for  a 
better  understanding  of  the  underlying  prin- 
ciples of  Froebel's  system. 

The  kindergartners  were  generally  young, 
frequently  inexperienced,  and  had  they 
trusted  to  their  own  knowledge  alone,  would 
have  felt  themselves  entirely  unfitted  to 
serve  as  guides  in  education  to  those  happy 
women  upon  whom  the  privilege  of  mother- 


40  THE  CHARM  OF  THE  LILY 

hood  had  been  conferred,  and  who  therefore 
had  attained  to  a  kind  of  spiritual  dignity 
and  instinctive  wisdom.  Yet  they  were  en- 
thusiasts, as  all  followers  of  Froebel  must 
be  of  necessity,  and  they  knew  beyond  doubt 
that  the  study  of  the  kindergarten  would 
train  the  mother-instinct  into  insight ;  would 
give  higher  ideals  of  discipline  and  of  the 
value  of  love  and  reverence  in  the  moral 
training  of  the  child ;  would  teach  the  ileces- 
sity  of  harmonious  purpose  throughout  the 
entire  scheme  of  education ;  would  serve  as 
a  gateway  to  wider  culture ;  and  finally  that 
the  communion  of  so  many  earnest  women 
would  kindle  courage  and  enthusiasm  into  a 
brighter  flame  in  every  heart. 

And  so,  indeed,  it  has  proved  wherever 
mothers'  meetings,  mothers'  classes,  mothers' 
conferences,  among  rich  and  poor  and  high 
and  low,  have  been  carried  on  according  to 
Froebel's  principles  ;  and  we  who  believe  in 
the  kindergarten  are  not  altogether  sure  that 
this,  its  latest  offspring,  may  not,  like  the 
name  of  Abou  ben  Adhem,  lead  all  the  rest. 


THE  PRIESTLY   OFFICE 

**  Women  should  make  of  their  educational  calling  a 
priestly  ofl&ce." 

It  is  now  about  sixty  years  since  Frie- 
drich  Froebel,  the  great  benefactor  of  child- 
hood, began  to  preach  a  truth  of  which  he 
had  long  been  convinced,  namely,  that  "  aU 
school  education  was  yet  without  a  proper 
initial  foundation,  and  that,  therefore,  until 
the  education  of  the  nursery  was  reformed, 
nothing  solid  and  worthy  could  be  attained. 
The  necessity  for  training  intelligent,  capa- 
ble mothers  occupied  his  mind,  and  the 
importance  of  the  education  of  childhood's 
earliest  years  became  more  evident  to  him 
than  ever  before." 

It  was  in  1835  that  his  idea  of  a  mission 
to  women  may  be  said  to  have  definitely 
taken  shape,  and  about  this  time  he  became 
so  disheartened  with  the  slow  progress  of  his 


42  TBE  PBIESTLT  OFFICE 

educational  ideas  in  Germany  that  lie  seri- 
ously thought  of  emigrating  to  the  United 
States  to  establish  his  system  in  a  new  coun- 
try, presumably  less  fettered  by  convention, 
prejudice,  and  tradition.  He  was  finally 
obliged  to  relinquish  this  plan,  and  to  strug- 
gle on  to  the  end  in  his  own  land  amid 
hardships  and  discouragements  such  as  only 
a  divine  enthusiasm  could  have  endured. 
Froebel  could  not  come  to  us  himself,  but  no 
bars  of  infirmity  or  chains  of  circumstance 
were  round  his  thoughts,  and  when  he  sent 
them  forth,  they  winged  their  way  to  the 
country  from  which  he  hoped  so  much. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  just  where  and  when 
among  us  in  America  the  first  movement 
was  begun  toward  that  definite  work  for 
mothers  in  connection  with  the  kindergar- 
ten, which  Froebel  preached  so  long  and  so 
earnestly,  for  when  the  seeds  of  certain 
principles  are  sown  about  the  same  time  in 
many  warm  and  generous  hearts,  it  is  prob- 
able that  there  will  be  an  almost  simul- 
taneous budding,  growth,  and  flowering. 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  43 

First  in  every  community  came  the  kin- 
dergarten as  developed  for  little  children ; 
then  the  work  extended  its  influence  to  older 
boys  and  girls ;  next,  training-schools  for 
kindergartners  were  established,  and  soon 
these  kindergartners  felt  that  their  best  and 
most  natural  helper  was  the  mother,  and 
beckoned  her  to  the  magic  circle. 

Such  was  the  progress  of  the  movement 
everywhere,  and  the  pioneers  have  been  so 
many,  that  one  can  hardly  see  the  wood  for 
the  trees,  though  Miss  Elizabeth  Harrison,  of 
Chicago,  must  always  merit  special  mention 
as  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  successful 
in  this  field.  Her  personal  magnetism 
and  great  executive  ability  not  only  served 
her  in  organizing  and  setting  in  motion  large 
mothers'  classes  under  her  immediate  direc- 
tion, but  she  impressed  every  one  of  the 
graduates  from  her  training-school  with  the 
vital  importance  of  the  mother's  cooperation 
and  the  necessity  of  securing  it  in  the  begin- 
ning as  a  prime  factor  in  the  success  of  her 
work.     During  the  winter  of  1892-93,  four 


44  THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE 

hundred  and  fifty  of  the  most  intelligent 
women  of  Chicago  were  enrolled  in  Miss 
Harrison's  central  and  branch  classes,  and 
so  energetic,  wide-awake,  rapid,  and  vigorous 
is  that  community  that  doubtless  the  num- 
ber is  increased  tenfold  by  this  time. 

A  second  renascence  has  begun  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  —  there  is  a  new  revival 
of  learning,  differing  somewhat  from  the 
first  in  that  it  is  felt  by  women  only.  There 
is  scarcely  a  self-respecting  woman  in  our 
country  to-day  who  does  not  either  attend  a 
class  in  something  —  no  matter  what  —  or 
conduct  one  herself.  Eagerly,  thirstily, 
they  are  everywhere  drinking  in  deep 
draughts  of  information  on  dynamics,  ther- 
apeutics, hieroglyphics,  hydrostatics,  mne- 
monics, Herbartianism,  Platonic  philosophy, 
zymotic  diseases,  and  other  abstruse  subjects 
with  strange  and  high-sounding  names.  A 
fellow  kindergartner  sat  beside  a  pretty 
young  woman  in  a  car  the  other  day,  who 
looked  modest  and  unassuming  and  quite 
like  other  people,  and  yet  she  was  reading  a 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  45 

pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Internal  Relations 
and  Taxonomy  of  the  Archaean  Terranes  of 
Turkestan,  with  Notes  on  the  Pre-Paleozoic 
Surface  of  the  Island  of  Nova  Zembla." 
My  informant  copied  the  title,  promptly 
looking  up  all  the  hard  words,  and  could 
not  but  throb  with  pride  for  her  sex  as  she 
reflected  that  one  member  of  it,  at  least, 
could  read  and  enjoy  this  highly  condensed 
extract  of  literature. 

Here  and  there  among  these  countless 
clubs  and  classes  for  self-improvement,  a 
new  subject  for  study  has  lately  presented 
itself.  It  is  new,  it  is  useful,  it  is  all- 
important,  and  it  is  deeply  interesting  to 
every  human  being,  for  it  is  the  scientific 
study  of  childhood.  "  A  child,  an  immortal 
being,"  as  one  of  our  wise  kindergartners 
says,  "  is  certainly  as  legitimate  an  object  of 
respectful  study  as  a  starfish,  or  a  microbe, 
or  a  plant.  He  is  as  important  as  a  freshly 
exhumed  hieroglyphic  stone,  or  a  bone  of  an 
extinct  species,  and  is  not  he,  '  the  living 
poem,'  worthy  of   as   careful   and   concen- 


46  THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE 

trated  thought  as  the  masterpieces  of  litera- 
ture or  the  languages  of  foreign  countries?" 

One  cannot  deny  that  these  things  are  use- 
ful and  legitimate  objects  of  study,  but  the 
child  in  his  heredity,  his  processes  of  devel- 
opment, his  possibilities  for  good  or  evil,  his 
relations  to  society,  is  supremely  more  im- 
portant ;  and  wherever  that  fact  is  recognized 
and  wherever  women  have  banded  themselves 
together  for  the  study  of  child-culture,  it 
will  be  found,  I  think,  that  the  kindergarten 
influence  is  behind  the  movement. 

This  study  of  the  "  science  of  mother- 
hood," as  Froebel  calls  it,  may  be  greatly 
varied  in  scope  and  method,  according  as  it 
is  taken  up  by  women  of  thought  and  culti- 
vation, or  by  the  poor  hard-working  mothers, 
many  of  them  very  ignorant,  many  of  them 
speaking  but  little  English,  who  form  the 
classes  in  the  free  kindergartens.  To  all 
women,  however,  rich  or  poor,  wise  or  igno- 
rant, married  or  unmarried,  the  study  can 
but  bring  added  culture,  added  self-know- 
ledge, greater  reverence,  thoughtf  ulness,  and 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  47 

tenderness,  deeper  feeling  of  responsibility, 
and  wider  sense  of  human  relationships. 

Each  kindergartner  or  leader  in  the  child- 
study  clubs  would  naturally  conduct  her 
classes  according  to  her  own  mental  bias 
and  the  trend  of  her  strongest  moral  convic- 
tions, but  any  course  for  cultivated  women 
embraces  all,  or  the  greater  part,  of  the  fol- 
lowing subjects :  — 

1.  The  theory  of  child-culture  as  found 
in  Froebel's  "  Mutter  und  Kose-Lieder,"  a 
book  little  known  outside  of  kindergarten 
circles,  but  occupying  a  unique  place  in  lit- 
erature, representing  as  it  does  the  typical 
experiences  of  childhood. 

2.  A  critical  study  of  Froebel's  connected 
series  of  play-material,  or  his  "  Gifts  and 
Occupations,"  with  some  practical  work 
upon  each  one  of  them. 

3.  Lectures  on  the  representative  plays  of 
childhood,  on  the  kindergarten  games  and 
songs,  their  meaning  and  value,  and  in  this 
connection  the  learning  and  singing  of  suit- 
able songs  for  the  home  and  nursery. 


48  THE  PBIESTLY  OFFICE 

4.  Lectui'es  on  story-telling  as  an  art,  and 
as  a  science,  with  suggestions  on  children's 
literature  and  the  learning  of  typical  stories. 

Talks  on  moral  and  physical  training,  on 
discipline,  on  intermediate  and  higher  edu- 
cation, and  on  the  scientific  study  and  ob- 
servation of  children  form  part  of  the 
course  also,  being  as  varied  and  extensive 
as  the  time  of  the  class  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  leader  admit. 

Informal  meetings  are  also  arranged,  to 
which  mothers  may  bring  vexed  questions, 
where  matters  may  be  talked  over  in  friendly 
council,  where  the  experience  of  the  many 
may  be  placed  at  the  service  of  the  one, 
where  suggestions  may  be  made  as  to  help- 
ful reading-matter  in  the  line  of  the  work 
and  advice  given  as  to  useful  home  and 
nursery  occupations. 

The  long-continued  and  beautiful  work 
in  the  mothers'  classes  of  the  Chicago  Kin- 
dergarten College  culminated  not  long  ago 
in  an  enthusiastic  public  conference,  for 
which  special  railroad  rates  were  arranged, 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  49 

and  whose  closing  meeting  was  attended  by 
eight  hundred  parents.  That  convocation 
might  perhaps  justly  be  called  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  education,  for  though  other 
specialists  have  come  together  for,  lo,  these 
many  years,  to  speak  and  to  hear  wisdom 
upon  the  culture  of  vines,  and  trees,  and 
flowers,  and  horses,  and  dogs,  and  cattle, 
and  poultry,  yet  never  before  had  mo- 
thers met  in  any  numbers  for  the  scientific 
study  of  the  early  years  of  childhood. 
Three  daily  sessions  were  held  during  this 
conference,  and  at  the  close  of  the  first  day 
it  was  found  necessary  to  provide  an  addi- 
tional room  for  overflow  meetings,  and  a 
larger  hall  for  the  evening  assemblies. 
Artists,  psychologists,  physicians,  and  kin- 
dergarten training-teachers  addressed  the 
mothers,  who  were  keenly  appreciative  of 
the  value  of  the  occasion,  and  free  and  un- 
constrained in  query  and  discussion.  Some 
of  the  subjects  taken  up  were,  Pre-Natal 
Influences,  Influence  of  Nursery  Appoint- 
ments, Clothing  and  Food  of  Young  Chil- 


60  THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE 

dren,  Stories  and  their  Psychological  Mean- 
ing, Constructive  and  Destructive  Games, 
Home  Training  and  Discipline,  Applied 
Psychology  and  Kindergarten  Principles. 

The  interest  felt  in  this  first  conference 
has  inspired  many  other  companies  of  wo- 
men  to  engage  in  similar  work,  and  its 
success  doubtless  led  in  a  measure  to  the 
convening  of  the  First  National  Congress  of 
Mothers,  held  in  the  capital  of  our  country 
last  winter.^ 

There  were  delegates  at  this  Washington 
meeting  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States 
and  from  Canada,  while  many  of  the  lead- 
ing American  educators,  both  men  and  wo- 
men, were  in  daily  attendance. 

The  subjects  discussed  were  eminently 
practical :  The  Care,  the  Food,  the  Men- 
tal and  Moral  Education  of  Children ; 
Preparation  for  Motherhood;  The  Duties 
of  Motherhood ;  and  what  might  be  called 
the  Public  Responsibilities  of  Mothers. 
The  audience  was  chiefly  made  up  of  re- 
1  Februaxy  17-19, 1897. 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  51 

presentatives  from  normal  and  free  kinder- 
garten associations,  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Unions,  benevolent  organizations, 
educational  and  industrial  organizations, 
and  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs ; 
while  the  church  was  represented  largely 
by  mission  workers  and  the  King's  Daugh- 
ters. The  addresses  for  the  most  part  were 
educational,  one  resolution  only  being  of- 
fered, and  passed  unanimously  by  a  rising 
vote.  This  was  in  favor  of  admitting  into 
the  homes  of  our  country  "  only  those  peri- 
odicals which  inspire  to  noble  thought  and 
deed." 

Now,  while  some  may  question  the  advisa- 
bility of  a  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  no 
one,  probably,  will  doubt  the  desirability 
of  local  mothers'  meetings,  designed  for  the 
exchange  of  experiences,  for  the  study  of 
the  problems  of  childhood  and  of  education, 
and  of  the  community  problems  that  affect 
home  life. 

This  training  the  kindergarten  has  begun 
to  give  to  mothers,  thus  preparing  them  for 


52  THE  PBIESTLY  OFFICE 

what  Froebel  calls  "  their  priestly  office," 
the  courses  sketched  above  being  intended 
for  women  of  comparative  leisure  and  edu- 
cation, and  needing  modification  in  manage- 
ment and  in  details  for  the  hard-worked, 
unlettered  women  who  attend  the  free  kin- 
dergarten classes.  These  humble  household 
priestesses  can  give  no  time  to  outside  study, 
even  if  they  knew  how  to  pursue  it,  and  the 
talks  and  lectures  for  their  benefit  must  be 
briefer,  simpler,  and  cover  a  more  restricted 
field  of  subjects.  The  meetings,  too,  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  study-clubs  already  de- 
scribed, have  a  social  air  about  them  which 
is  carefully  fostered  by  the  kindergartner  in 
order  to  give  a  little  innocent  gayety  to 
these  dull,  imprisoned  lives.  The  mothers 
are  formally  invited,  in  notes  sent  by  the 
children,  to  be  present  on  a  certain  after- 
noon, and  the  kindergartner  who  is  to  be 
the  speaker  puts  on  her  prettiest  gown  for 
the  occasion.  In  certain  kindergartens  in 
the  West,  the  assembly  room  is  made  into 
a  bower  of  flowers  and  vines,  and  bouquets 


THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE  53 

are  frequently  provided  for  the  guests  to 
take  home ;  but  that  is  in  bounteous  Cali- 
fornia, where  blossoms  may  be  had  for  the 
asking.  In  the  same  kindergartens,  too,  as 
a  large  Housekeeper's  Class  is  one  of  the 
branches  of  the  work,  they  have  a  little 
maid  of  ten  or  twelve  years,  neatly  attired 
in  cap  and  apron,  to  open  the  door  for  the 
visitors  and  show  them  to  their  seats. 

At  all  these  meetings,  no  matter  where 
they  are  held,  some  light  refreshment  is 
served;  and  when  the  mothers  enter,  they 
see  a  flower-trimmed  table  spread  with  a 
shining  white  cloth,  and  set  with  pretty  cups 
and  saucers,  bright  spoons,  and  a  dainty 
spirit  lamp  and  kettle.  Then  when  the  talk 
is  over,  the  kindergartner  and  her  assistants 
serve  tea,  coffee,  or  chocolate  with  seed- 
cakes, wafers,  or  cookies,  and  thus  the  oc- 
casion becomes  a  social  event,  a  real  after- 
noon tea,  but  much  more  delightful  and 
inspiring  than  such  functions  are  com- 
monly found  to  be. 

The  women  are   somewhat   shy  and  em- 


54  THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE 

barrassed  at  first,  but  this  is  soon  overcome 
as  they  grow  better  acquainted  with  the  kin- 
dergartner  and  with  one  another,  and  gradu- 
ally learn  the  purpose  of  the  meetings.  It 
will  be  a  cosmopolitan  audience  thus  gath- 
ered together  in  any  of  our  free  kinder- 
gartens, and  somewhat  uncongenial  in  its 
elements,  comprising,  as  it  does,  Italians, 
Germans,  French,  Irish,  Scandinavians,  He- 
brews, Africans,  a  few  native-born  Ameri- 
cans possibly,  and  perhaps  even  some  wan- 
derers from  Syria  or  Armenia.  None  are 
too  foreign,  however,  to  be  pleased  and  at- 
tentive ;  some  evidently  both  understand 
and  enjoy  the  simple  address,  some  light  up 
at  intervals,  others  get  one  or  two  ideas 
only ;  but,  after  all,  this  might  be  said  of  any 
audience,  for  when  the  flow  of  our  thoughts 
to  our  fellow  creatures  is  not  blocked  by 
ignorance  or  dullness,  it  is  as  apt  to  be 
impeded  by  prejudice,  thoughtlessness,  and 
abstraction  in  other  matters. 

All  the  mothers  have  seen  the  kindergar- 
ten work  and  play,  but  they  now  for  the  first 


THE  PBIESTLY  OFFICE  65 

time  are  led  to  understand  their  meaning. 
At  one  meeting,  perhaps,  they  are  shown  the 
first  few  gifts,  —  the  kindergartner  explain- 
ing simply  their  mathematical,  architectural, 
and  artistic  value,  and  then  giving  them  to  the 
members  of  the  class,  who  f  oUow  dictations 
as  well  as  may  be,  and  thus  get  some  idea  of 
both  theory  and  practice.  Another  meeting 
is  devoted  to  the  simpler  hand-work  with 
explanations  and  illustrations;  another  to 
story-telling  and  its  value,  when  one  or  two 
useful  stories  manifolded  on  the  hectograph 
or  mimeograph  are  presented  to  the  mothers. 
On  another  occasion,  possibly,  Froebel's 
games  and  songs  are  discussed,  the  kinder- 
gartner, with  her  assistants,  drawiug  the 
guests  to  the  circle  and  persuading  them 
to  play  some  of  the  more  familiar  ones. 

Talks  are  also  given  on  such  subjects  as 
The  New  Baby,  Children's  Diseases  and  Re- 
medies, Children's  Food  and  Clothing,  The 
Mother  as  an  Example,  Punishments  and 
Rewards,  The  True  Discipline,  Moral  and 
Religious   Training,    Courtesy,    Truth-TeU 


66  THE  PRIESTLY  OFFICE 

ing,  etc. ;  the  remarks  being  brief  and  clear 
and  designed  to  lead  to  subsequent  expres- 
sion of  opinion  from  the  audience. 

Think  of  the  incomparable  value  of  such 
meetings  to  these  shut-in  women,  whose  eyes 
have  never  learned  to  look  beyond  the  nar- 
row streets  in  which  they  live,  who  never 
read,  who  never  see  fine  pictures  or  hear 
sweet  music,  who  have  absolutely  nothing 
around  them  which  wiU  quicken  in  their 
souls  the  flame  of  aspiration.  Should  a 
dozen,  a  score,  a  hundred,  mothers'  meet- 
ings only  lighten  for  a  time  the  burden  laid 
on  one  of  those  tired  backs  ;  only  lift  for  a 
little  the  drooping  corners  of  those  sad, 
hard  mouths ;  only  give  those  dull,  short- 
sighted eyes  one  swift  glimpse  into  the  daz- 
zling face  of  the  ideal,  they  would  even  then 
have  served  their  purpose,  they  would  have 
done  a  bit  of  the  world's  work  and  a  bit 
worth  doing. 


SAND  AND  THE  CHILDREN 

"  The  plays  of  childhood  have  the  mightiest  influence 
on  the  maintenance  or  non-maintenance  of  laws." 

In  a  daily  paper,  not  long  ago,  appeared 
the  following  brief  article  :  — 

SAND-HILLS  WANTED  FOR  CHILDREN. 

The  Brotherhood  of  the  Kingdom  has 
applied  to  the  Park  Board  to  provide  sand- 
hills in  various  places  in  the  city  for  the  use 
of  little  children.  Those  who  are  urging 
this  innovation  in  New  York  life  say :  — 

"  In  Berlin  and  other  Continental  cities, 
sand-hills  are  a  long-established  feature  of 
the  parks.  In  the  '  Thiergarten  '  there  are 
large  spaces  reserved  for  that  purpose ;  the 
children  dig  to  their  hearts'  content  while 
the  nurses  and  mothers  sit  reading  and  talk- 
ing, with  an  occasional  glance  at  their 
charges.     In  the  smaller  parks  in  the  centre 


68  SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN 

of  the  city  there  are  sand-hills  on  every  cor- 
ner, and  they  are  often  so  crowded  with  chil- 
dren that  they  look  more  like  little  heaps  of 
humanity  than  heaps  of  sand. 

"  Sand-hills  could  be  provided  at  the  ends 
of  the  several  greens  in  Central  Park,  at 
the  Mall,  and  in  the  smaller  parks  of  the 
city,  like  Bryant  Park  and  Tompkins  Square, 
The  expense  of  providing  and  occasionally 
renewing  them  would  be  slight,  and  they 
would  require  little  care,  except  occasionally 
sweeping  back  the  sand.  Altogether  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  an  improvement  giv- 
ing so  much  pleasure  for  so  little  outlay,  and 
to  the  worthiest  and  most  important  class 
of  our  citizensJ'* 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  italicizing  eight 
words  in  the  above  quotation,  because  of  the 
delicious  novelty  of  the  phrase.  I  have 
never  doubted  myself  that  the  children  were 
the  most  important  class  of  our  citizens  — 
still  less  that  they  were  the  most  worthy; 
but  I  have  not  been  accustomed  heretofore 


SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN  69 

to  find  my  attitude  of  mind  adopted  uncon- 
ditionally by  the  grown-up  world.  Dear 
American  citizens  of  the  future,  the  millen- 
nium is  already  dawning,  if  we  have  begun 
to  realize  just  how  worthy  and  how  impor- 
tant you  really  are ! 

Germany  seems  in  many  respects  to  offer 
a  simpler,  freer,  more  truly  childlike  life  to 
its  little  ones  than  is  found  in  our  coun- 
try. The  German  people  have  grown  to 
understand  them  more  thoroughly  than  we 
have  ever  taken  time  to  do,  and,  under- 
standing, are  better  able  to  provide  for  their 
natural,  instinctive  wants.  A  land  that  has 
produced  such  writers  of  children's  stories 
as  the  Grimm  brothers,  such  a  composer  of 
children's  songs  as  Reinecke,  such  a  painter 
of  child-pictures  as  Meyer  von  Bremen,  such 
a  child-lover  and  child-interpreter  as  Froe- 
bel,  may  be  trusted  to  know  what  means 
of  play  and  occupation  are  best  suited  to 
the  simple,  normal  child.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised, therefore,  when  we  read  of  the  sand- 
hills in  the  "  Thiergarten  "  and  the  smaller 


60  SAND  AND  THE  CHILDREN 

parks  of  Berlin,  for  these  only  minister  to 
the  strong  desire,  the  natural  instinct,  to  dig 
and  to  grub  in  the  earth,  shown  by  every 
young  human  animal,  and  noted  by  every 
discriminating  observer. 

That  this  is  a  universal  instinct  no  effort 
need  be  made  to  prove,  for  a  momentary 
recollection  of  one's  own  childhood  and  a 
glance  out  upon  the  world  will  furnish  all 
needed  evidence  of  the  statement. 

Who  is  so  old  that  he  cannot  recall  the 
soft,  cool  touch  of  the  sand  as  he  patted  and 
smoothed  it,  the  fascinating  way  in  which  it 
slipped  through  the  fingers  when  poured 
from  one  hand  into  another,  the  endless  joy 
of  digging  into  its  yellow  depths,  the  facility 
with  which  it  could  be  heaped  into  moun- 
tain chains,  hollowed  into  valleys,  moulded 
into  forts,  and  thrown  up  into  breast- 
works ? 

Who  has  forgotten  the  delicate  cakes  and 
pies  he  used  to  make  of  sand,  or,  when  it 
was  well  smoothed,  how  he  delighted  to  im- 
press his  hand  upon  the  yielding  surface,  or 


SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN  61 

use  it  for  a  drawing-board,  and  sketch  fig- 
ures and  letters  and  pictures  upon  it  ? 

There  is  no  play-material  which  is  at  once 
so  responsive,  so  indestructible,  so  cheap,  and 
so  universally  enjoyed,  and  there  is  nothing 
which  city  children,  at  least,  have  so  little 
opportunity  to  use. 

The  delicately  nurtured  child  is  often 
warned  away  from  sand-heaps  for  fear  of 
soiled  hands  and  clothing,  for,  as  somebody 
says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  thyself  dirty  " 
is  the  first  maternal  commandment. 

The  children  of  the  poor,  on  the  contrary, 
have  no  access  to  any  such  clean  and  attrac- 
tive play-material,  save  as  they  see  it  in 
small  quantities  on  the  sand-tables  of  the 
free  kindergartens.  Those  institutions  in 
most  of  our  large  cities,  however,  bear,  un- 
fortunately, so  slight  a  proportion  to  the 
number  of  children  of  kindergarten  age 
that  they  can  hardly  be  considered  in  the 
problem.  In  many  of  the  German  kindergar- 
tens, that  of  the  Pestalozzi-Froebel  House 
for  instance,  a  large  sand-garden  shaded  by 


62  SAND  AND  THE  CHILDREN 

trees  is  provided,  large  enough  for  a  number 
of  children  to  play  in  at  once,  and  with  suf- 
ficient quantity  of  sand  to  allow  unlimited 
digging,  grubbing,  mining,  gardening,  and 
filling  of  small  pails  and  carts. 

Most  American  kindergartens  consider 
themselves  blessed  if  they  are  possessed  of 
a  sand-table,  which  is  merely  a  deep,  water- 
tight box  on  stout  legs,  large  enough  for  a 
dozen  small  persons  to  gather  about,  and 
filled  with  sand  to  within  a  few  inches  of  the 
top.  Around  this  box  the  children  cluster 
and  engage  in  all  kinds  of  delightful  plays 
under  the  friendly  guidance  of  the  kinder- 
gartner.  At  first  they  dig  into  the  sand, 
cover  and  uncover  their  hands  with  it,  pour 
it  through  their  fingers,  heap  it  up  and  level 
it  again  ;  then  they  smooth  it  and  press 
wooden  balls  deep  down  in  it,  perhaps,  mak- 
ing quantities  of  soft,  rounded  birds'  nests. 
On  some  other  occasion  paths  and  roads 
are  laid  out  and  "  make-believe "  gardens 
planted ;  and  by  and  by,  when  the  workers 
have  grown  more  expert,  the  whole  surface 


SAND  AND  THE  CHILDREN  63 

is  laid  out  to  represent  a  village,  with  its 
surroundings  of  mountains,  hills,  lakes,  and 
rivers.  The  children  do  all  the  work  in 
company,  dividing  the  labor  according  to 
their  different  abilities,  and  afterwards, 
with  their  blocks  and  sticks,  erect  the 
houses,  the  public  buildings,  fence  the  gar- 
dens and  barnyards,  and  add  life  to  the 
scene  by  planting  miniature  trees  along  the 
roadsides  and  stationing  toy  sheep  and  cows 
in  the  fields.  By  such  means  they  taste  the 
never-failing  joy  of  playing  in  the  sand, 
learn  practically  to  know  the  value  of  coop- 
eration, and  gain  an  idea  of  natural  forma- 
tions which  is  most  valuable  in  the  school 
when  the  study  of  geography  is  begun. 
There,  too,  the  sand-table  is  sometimes  used, 
its  value  in  geography-teaching  being  recog- 
nized in  some  quarters.  But  even  though 
every  child  went  to  a  kindergarten  and  sub- 
sequently to  school  (which  supposition,  alas ! 
is  worlds  away  from  truth),  and  even  if  sand 
were  used  in  both  places,  the  desirability  of 
large   sand-heaps   in   squares   or  courts  or 


64  SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN 

parks,  for  free,  unguided  play,  would  not 
therefore  be^  lessened.  The  universal,  healthy- 
delight  in  real  contact  with  the  earth,  the  joy 
of  digging  and  heaping,  the  keen  interest  in 
moulding  a  responsive  substance,  in  working 
out  ideas  with  an  easily  handled  material 
—  all  these  impulses  need  gratification  on  a 
larger  scale  than  is  practical  in  kindergarten 
and  school,  and  need,  too,  a  field  where  they 
can  unfold  spontaneously  and  with  absolute 
freedom. 

Those  who  have  read  Dr.  Stanley  HalFs 
suggestive  article,  "  The  Story  of  a  Sand- 
Pile,"  ^  will  already  have  an  idea  of  the 
wealth  of  valuable  knowledge  in  various 
directions  which  may  be  gained  by  free  play 
in  the  sand.  There  are  now,  we  are  told, 
throngs  of  children  of  school  age  in  our 
growing  American  cities  who  do  not  attend 
school,  and  this  largely  because  there  is  no 
room  for  them.  What  are  these  children 
doing,  where  are  they  playing,  and  what  are 
they  playing  with  ?  It  is  obvious  that  they 
1  E.  L.  KeUogg  &  Co. 


SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN  65 

cannot  be  the  children  of  the  rich,  or  of  the 
well-to-do  portion  of  the  population ;  and  it 
is  equally  obvious  that  a  large  proportion  of 
them  are  either  too  young  or  too  incapable 
to  be  at  work,  or  that  there  is  not  as  yet  any 
necessity  for  their  employment.  Nobody 
who  knows  children  supposes  that  they  are 
sitting  at  home  with  folded  hands  ;  particu- 
larly when  home  means  two  or  three  small 
rooms  already  overcrowded  with  furniture 
and  babies  and  washtubs,  and  very  deficient 
in  light  and  air.  But  what  are  they  doing 
—  this  immense  army  of  school  age,  and 
the  uncounted  thousands  a  little  younger, 
scarcely  out  of  babyhood,  and  yet  old  enough 
to  be  in  the  streets  ?  Have  they  any  play- 
grounds, have  even  the  school-children  them- 
selves any  proper  place  to  play,  in  or  out  of 
school  hours ;  in  fine,  have  the  children  of 
the  poor  any  one  thing  to  do  out  of  doors 
which  is  simple  and  normal  and  healthful? 
Take  a  walk  through  the  crowded  streets 
where  babies  most  do  congregate,  and  settle 
the  question  for  yourself.    You  are  fortunate 


66  SAND  AND   THE  CHILDREN 

if  you  are  able  to  bring  back  even  the  hint 

of  an  affirmative  answer. 

There  are  some  improved  tenements,  lately- 
erected  in  Brooklyn,  which  are  built  around 
a  square,  half  of  which  is  kept  green  as  a 
park,  and  the  other  half  provided  with  heaps 
of  sand  for  children.  The  janitor  merely 
shovels  the  sand  into  fresh  heaps  when  the 
blithe  workers  have  gone,  but  takes  no  other 
charge  of  the  play,  and  the  policemen  sta- 
tioned in  the  neighborhood  report  that  no 
windows  have  been  broken  there  since  the 
eand-piles  were  established. 

Would  not  a  sand-pile  placed  in  some 
appropriate  spot  and  devoted  to  the  use  of 
children  be  as  fitting  a  memorial  to  the 
beloved  as  a  stained-glass  window  ?  It  would 
come  considerably  cheaper  as  an  investment 
in  the  beginning,  and  the  interest  on  it 
would  be  —  how  much  greater  in  the  end  ? 


A  DUMB  DEVIL 

"  This  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting." 

The  fire  won't  burn !  It  smoulders  and 
hisses  and  sighs  gloomily  about  the  logs. 
Now  and  then  it  sends  up  a  blunt  arrow  of 
flame  which  has  no  successor ;  now  and  then 
it  blows  a  great  puff  of  smoke  in  your  face 
as  you  kneel  beside  it  shivering.  You  feed 
it  with  kindling  which  it  seizes  upon,  chars, 
and  throws  aside.  It  resists  poking,  resists 
blowing,  resists  rearrangement.  It  won't  do 
anything,  —  not  even  go  out,  but  glowers  at 
you  with  one  defiant  eye  as  you  sink  ex- 
hausted on  the  hearth. 

The  world  is  cold  and  damp  outside  and 
warmth  and  comfort  are  sorely  needed,  but 
there  you  crouch  with  hands  begrimed,  in 
front  of  the  blackened  wood  and  the  gray 
ashes. 


68  A  DUMB  DEVIL 

You  are  chilled  and  tired  and  unhappy. 
The  fire  won't  burn ! 

There  is  nothing  more  depressing  in  a 
household  than  that  peculiarly  unpleasant 
form  of  temper  which  we  call  sulkiness.  It 
lowers  the  barometer  of  happiness  as  effec- 
tually as  a  northeast  storm,  and  its  noxious 
vapors  spread  abroad  as  quickly  as  the  fumes 
of  burning  sulphur. 

It  is  another  proof  of  the  exquisite  sensi- 
tiveness of  the  moral  atmosphere  that  wraps 
us  round  that  it  can  be  so  easily  affected  by 
the  silent  mood  of  another  person,  though 
that  person  be  but  a  rebellious  child  afar  in 
the  nursery,  or  a  mutinous  cook  glooming  in 
the  kitchen. 

Words,  after  all,  play  a  small  part  in 
intercommunication,  being  as  often  used  to 
conceal  thought  as  to  express  it ;  but  no  one, 
not  even  the  household  dog,  can  fail  to  inter- 
pret rightly  the  heavy  silence,  the  lowering 
brow,  the  changed  color,  and  the  brooding 
eye  of  a  human  creature  in  the  sulks. 


A  DUMB  DEVIL  69 

I  confess  that  the  temperament  which  is 
wont  to  hang  out  these  and  similar  storm- 
signals  is  to  my  mind  a  supremely  difficult 
one  to  deal  with,  and  one  which  I  should 
approach  with  a  well-defined  sinking  at  the 
heart.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  hopeless  of 
improvement,  but  the  saving  work  must  be 
begun  very  early  and  must  rest  upon  a  well- 
defined  diagnosis  of  the  disease,  one  of  its 
overwhelming  difficulties  being  that  the 
patient  resists  remedies  much  as  if  he  were 
afflicted  with  tetanus,  while  inquiry  into  his 
symptoms  and  the  causes  of  his  suffering  is 
as  profitable  as  to  question  the  Sphinx. 

When  does  this  temperament  begin  to 
show  itself?  Certainly  not  as  early  as 
determined  self-will  or  capability  of  fierce 
passion.  It  cannot  appear  before  the  birth 
of  self -consciousness,  for  it  commonly  has  its 
root  in  the  supposed  perception  of  injury  to 
self ;  nor  can  it  come  before  the  age  when 
some  reasoning  power  and  conscious  com- 
mand of  memory  have  been  attained,  for  its 
daily  food  is  real  or  fancied  grievances  which 


70  A  DUMB  DEVIL 

the  mind  perceives,  records,  and  will  not  or 

cannot  forget. 

One  of  the  causes  of  sulkiness  is  fre- 
quently to  be  found  in  a  violated  sense  of 
justice.  The  child  perceives,  often  with  too 
much  reason,  that  he  is  treated  unfairly, 
that  his  misdeeds  are  punished  capriciously, 
or  more  heavily  than  they  deserve,  or  per- 
haps that  he  is  corrected  for  a  fault  which 
another  member  of  the  family  may  commit 
with  impunity.  He  knows  that  he  is  weak 
and  cannot  avenge  himself,  he  is  unable  by 
the  very  constitution  of  his  being  to  cry 
aloud  for  redress,  and  the  sense  of  wrong 
filters  slowly  into  his  heart,  corroding  every- 
thing it  touches. 

It  is  easily  possible,  of  course,  that  this 
may  be  the  state  of  the  case;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  quite  as  likely  that  his 
wrongs  are  largely  imaginary,  —  ordinary 
occurrences  seen  with  a  jaundiced  eye.  The 
lunatic  who  fancies  himself  a  king  is  exposed 
to  a  thousand  assaults  of  rank  and  cruel 
wounds  of  dignity  from  his   supposititious 


A  DUMB  DEVIL  71 

subjects,  and  the  child  who  regards  himself 
as  the  centre  of  the  universe  is  easily 
wounded  in  self-love,  and  bears  constantly 
about  with  him  that  inconvenient  bit  of 
luggage  known  as  "  a  chip  on  the  shoulder." 

There  is  no  denying,  I  think,  that  egotism 
has  much  to  do  with  sulkiness,  and  that  if 
the  child  (or  the  grown  person)  could  be  led 
to  have  a  juster  idea  of  himself,  if  he  could 
be  persuaded  to  think  less  of  his  own  wrongs 
and  give  some  attention  to  other  people's 
rights,  his  malady  would  be  in  a  fair  way  of 
being  cured. 

Let  us  be  charitable,  however,  and  re- 
member that  what  may  appear  like  sulkiness 
is  sometimes  a  dark  and  gloomy  habit  of 
mind  which  is  consequent  on  physical  weak- 
ness, or  upon  great  ante-natal  depression  on 
the  mother's  part.  I  was  discussing  the 
subject  the  other  day  with  an  observant  old 
lady  from  New  England,  who  shrewdly  re- 
marked, "Oh,  half  the  time  the  children 
ain't  a  mite  to  blame  for  their  sulky  tem- 
pers.    Some  of  'em  are  down-hearted  from 


72  A  DUMB  DEVIL 

the  start.  Why,  I  knew  of  a  baby  down  to 
Hardscrabble  that  was  discouraged  when 
it  wa'n't  but  two  days  old.'' 

The  sullen  child,  if  he  is  to  be  cured, 
needs  more  than  any  other  to  be  surrounded 
with  silent  love,  —  waves  of  it,  billows  of  it, 
floods  of  it,  warm  and  grateful  as  a  tropic 
ocean.  Gloom,  discouragement,  rebellion, 
bitterness,  cannot  long  endure  in  that  sweet 
encompassment,  and  the  child  must  be  led 
to  feel  to  the  very  dearths  of  his  selfish,  tor- 
tured heart  that  in  one  quarter,  at  least, 
there  will  be  inexhaustible  mercy  and  ten- 
derness and  sympathy.  And  this  does  not 
mean  that  he  is  to  be  humored,  or  petted, 
or  his  misdeeds  overlooked,  —  it  only  means 
that  such  a  child  needs  absolute  certainty 
of  love  somewhere,  lest  he  become  another 
Cain,  jealous  and  murderous  as  the  first  one. 
He  must  be  treated  with  strict  and  absolute 
justice,  which  is  entirely  compatible  with 
the  highest  kind  of  love ;  and  he  must  be 
made  happy  with  suitable  companionship 
and  occupation.     "Cross  Patch,"  of  childish 


A  DUMB  DEVIL  73 

rhyme,  who  sat  by  the  fire  to  spin,  doubtless 
had  sufficient  occupation,  but  we  note  that 
she  drew  the  latch  before  she  began  to  turn 
her  wheel.  This  is  of  all  things  what  the 
sulky  child  must  not  be  suffered  to  do ;  he 
must  never  draw  the  latch  and  seclude  him- 
self to  brood  over  his  wrongs. 

Now,  all  these  things  —  need  of  love, 
appropriate  discipline,  happiness,  suitable 
companionship,  and  occupation  —  are  so 
many  demands  of  the  child's  nature  which 
have  but  one  source  of  supply  at  this  stage 
of  his  development,  and  that  is  the  kinder- 
garten. It  is  not  obtruded  here,  you  observe, 
—  it  obtrudes  itself,  like  a  massive  boulder 
sleeping  under  deep  brown  masses  of  pine 
needles,  —  softly  covered  and  yet  heaving  a 
strong  shoulder  through  the  fragrant  cover- 
lid. A  well-ordered  kindergarten  seems  in- 
deed to  be  by  far  the  most  effective  agency 
for  dealing  with  the  beginnings  of  these 
moral  evils,  and  one  might  as  well  attempt 
to  ignore  it  as  to  ignore  the  water  that  bears 
up  the  yacht,  or  the  flagstaff  that  holds  the 
banner. 


74  A  DUMB  DEVIL 

There  are  no  children  on  earth  to  whom 
the  kindergarten  is  such  a  blessing  as  the 
selfish  and  the  sulky  ones,  and  to  these  it 
comes  like  an  angel  of  deliverance.  It  is 
because  the  devil  which  dominates  the  sulky- 
child  is  a  dumb  one,  and  therefore  deaf,  that 
he  is  so  difficult  to  cast  out.  He  cannot 
hear  reason  and  he  has  never  learned  to 
speak  it,  and  every  avenue  of  self-expression 
which  we  open  is  for  this  cause  a  distinct 
and  separate  gain.  The  child  draws  and 
colors,  moulds,  builds,  and  invents,  and  the 
demon  in  his  heart  begins  to  oppress  him 
less.  He  uses  his  voice  and  moves  his  body 
in  song  and  game,  and  still  greater  relief  is 
felt ;  he  is  led  to  express  a  thought  or  an 
opinion  through  his  absorption  in  his  work ; 
and  before  long  he  is  free,  happy,  and  un- 
conscious. He  is  in  the  society  of  his  equals, 
those  who  are  of  like  age  and  strength  and 
interests ;  he  has  occupation  which  his  soul 
loves ;  and  he  is,  for  the  most  part,  too  busy 
to  brood,  and  too  interested  in  other  things 
and  people  to  think  about  himself.     If  the 


A  DUMB  DEVIL  75 

kindergarten  is  what  it  should  be,  he  is  al- 
ways treated  fairly ;  and  should  he  give  way 
to  his  besetting  sin  at  any  time,  the  disap- 
proval of  the  small  world  about  him,  repre- 
senting public  opinion,  is  more  keenly  felt 
than  the  disapproval  of  his  mother.  If  his 
body  is  kept  in  good  condition  by  proper 
food  and  sleep,  if  he  has  plenty  of  outdoor 
exercise,  which  is  especially  essential  to  his 
temperament,  if  he  is  loved  well  and  wisely 
at  home,  and  if  he  is  made  happy,  busy,  and 
self-forgetful  in  a  good  kindergarten,  then 
we  may  have  every  hope  that  his  difficulties 
of  temper  will  gradually  be  overcome.  But 
if  these  things  be  neglected,  or  begun  too 
late,  then  all  the  fasting  and  prayer  of  the 
Trappist  monks  will  scarce  avail  to  exorcise 
the  dumb  devil  of  sulkiness. 


AN  UNWALLED   CITY 

"  He  that  hath  no  rule  over  his  own  spirit  is  like  a  city 
that  is  broken  down  and  without  walls." 

As  there  are  many  kinds  of  fire,  from  the 
quick  crackle  of  dry  sticks  to  the  mighty 
sweep  and  roar  of  the  full-fed  blaze,  or  the 
sulky  sputter  and  hiss  that  show  wet  wood, 
so  there  are  many  varieties  of  the  passionate 
temper  in  children,  each  one  needing  sepa- 
rate analysis  and  separate  mode  of  treat- 
ment. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning,  all  observant 
mothers  will  agree  that  the  first  manifes- 
tations of  this  temper  occur  at  a  very  early 
age,  some  time  before  short  clothes  have 
been  considered,  and  that  remedies  for  it 
are  often  applied  entirely  too  late.  I  can 
certainly  testify  from  wide  experience  that 
a  child  of  three  years  may  already  have 
developed  a  capacity  for  wild,  unreasoning 


AN   UNWALLED   CITY  77 

rage  that  would  shame  a  mad  bull  or  a 
Hyrcan  tiger.  Had  not  the  parents  been 
adherents  of  the  too  common  opinion  that  a 
baby's  faults  are  very  trifling  things,  which 
may  be  left  to  correction  in  after  years,  this 
capacity  might  already  have  been  somewhat 
lessened. 

A  child  at  the  height  of  one  of  these 
accesses  of  rage  is,  in  truth,  an  appalling 
object.  Prone  on  the  floor,  kicking  and 
stamping,  flushed  and  screaming,  biting  and 
striking  whatever  hand  is  held  out  to  him, 
swearing,  if  he  be  a  child  of  the  street,  until 
the  air  is  thick  with  sulphurous  fumes,  or, 
even  worse,  holding  his  breath  until  his  face 
grows  black  and  the  eyes  start  from  his 
head  —  he  seems,  in  truth,  a  child  no  longer, 
but  a  creature  under  demoniacal  possession. 
That  the  demon  is  one  of  his  own  rearing, 
tenderly  nursed  until  it  has  attained  its 
present  monstrous  strength,  is  of  no 
moment,  for  what  foes  can  a  man  have 
which  shall  be  worse  than  those  of  his  own 
household  ? 


78  AN   UN  WALLED  CITY 

What  may  be  done  for  him  at  the 
moment  ?  Shall  we  punish  him  ?  As  well 
put  out  a  fire  with  kerosene.  Shall  we 
reason  with  him?  As  well  reason  with 
Vesuvius  in  full  flow.  Shall  we  try  to 
soothe  him  with  kind  words  and  caresses? 
As  well  pat  a  cyclone  on  the  back  and  coax 
it  to  be  still.  No  ;  I  assert  boldly  that  the 
only  thing  to  be  done  at  this  juncture  is  to 
let  him  alone,  to  leave  the  room,  if  there  be 
another  room,  and  in  some  remote  corner  of 
the  house  offer  up  a  small  prayer  for  the 
souls  of  his  ancestors  (including  ourselves), 
who  undoubtedly  have  some  responsibility 
for  the  phenomena  we  have  just  witnessed. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  fact  that  these 
blind  furies  are  evil  to  look  upon,  as  much 
so  as  convulsions,  which  they  somewhat  re- 
semble, the  child  who  is  torn  by  them  need 
not  be  at  all  despaired  of.  There  are  many 
faults  which  are  far  more  difficult  to  cure, 
and  this  one  commonly  springs  from  no 
radical  defect  of  nature,  but  rather  from  a 
big,  savage  force   somewhere  which  needs 


AN   UN  WALLED  CITY  79 

regulating  and  putting  to  use.  The  pas- 
sionate temper  in  cliildren  is  regarded  more 
seriously,  perhaps,  because  it  is  so  ill  to  live 
with.  Isaiah  says  in  regard  to  the  pride 
of  Sennacherib,  "  Because  thy  rage  against 
me  and  thy  tumult  is  come  up  into  mine 
ears,  therefore  I  will  put  toy  hook  in  thy 
nose  and  my  bridle  in  thy  lips,"  the  infer- 
ence being  that  if  the  noise  of  that  rage  had 
not  been  so  unpleasant  he  would  have  made 
less  effort  at  bridling  and  taming.  So  it 
is  sometimes  with  the  unfortunate  child  of 
passionate  temper,  who,  because  his  tumult 
so  dins  at  the  ears,  gets  a  thousand  times 
more  reproof  and  punishment  than  his  quiet 
little  brother,  whose  faults  lie  deep  and 
black  at  the  bottom  of  the  still  pool  of  his 
nature. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  causes 
of  this  fiery  passion ;  for,  knowing  these,  it 
is  easier  to  give  relief.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  violent  fits  of  rage  in  children  some- 
times spring  from  purely  physical  causes. 
An  eminent  physician  says  that  a  child  is 


80  AN   UN  WALLED  CITY 

often  whipped  for  so-called  "naughtiness," 
when  what  he  needs  is  bed  and  a  dose  of 
medicine;  and  grown  people,  who  know 
how  difficult  it  frequently  is  to  control  the 
temper  in  sickness,  can  well  believe  this 
to  be  true.  But,  excluding  temporary  ail- 
ments, the  child  may  be  in  a  low-toned, 
neurasthenic  condition,  when  his  passions 
are  all  on  the  surface,  when  everything  and 
everybody  is  vexatious,  and  when  he  has 
absolutely  no  strength  of  will  with  which 
to  resist  the  suggestions  of  his  temper.  In 
such  a  case  nothing  but  careful  and  hygienic 
treatment  can  bring  the  body  to  its  normal 
state  and  restore  the  balance  of  the  emo- 
tions. 

There  are  other  cases  in  which  unreason- 
able rage  springs  from  some  slight  brain 
trouble,  a  pressure  on  some  delicate  fibre 
here,  a  nerve  out  of  order  there,  some  por- 
tion of  the  exquisite  mechanism  a  little 
wrong  somewhere.  Persons  familiar  with 
the  mysterious  disease  of  epilepsy  know  that 
uncontrollable  attacks  of  rage  are  among  its 


AN   UNWALLEB  CITY  81 

common  symptoms,  and  if  there  seems  no 
other  cause  for  violent  temper  in  a  child, 
this  one  should  at  least  be  considered. 

Setting  aside  disorders  of  brain  and  nerve 
and  body,  and  considering  the  normally 
healthy  human  creature,  we  cannot  but  see 
that  home  training  is  sometimes  directly  re- 
sponsible for  these  manifestations  of  temper. 
Perhaps  the  child  has  been  accustomed  to 
note,  ever  since  he  could  note  anything, 
that  violent  screaming  always  brought  what 
he  wanted ;  perhaps  the  very  first  time  he 
gave  way  to  rage  he  observed  that  parents 
and  guardians  flew  like  leaves  before  the 
blast,  and  the  way  was  cleared  for  his  de- 
sires ;  perhaps  he  has  never  been  taught 
seK-control  in  any  appetite ;  perhaps  he 
has  been  spoiled  and  petted  and  humored 
until  he  is  a  monster  of  caprice.  If  any  of 
these  suppositions  be  true,  alas  for  the  suf- 
ferer !  for  his  only  help  will  be  within  his 
own  bosom,  and  in  the  long  stretch  of  years 
before  he  learns  the  necessity  of  self-con- 
trol the  temper-demon  will  gain  appalling 
strength. 


82  AN   UN  WALLED  CITY 

There  are  possibilities,  too,  that  the  child 
has  a  strong  will  which  some  injudicious 
person  has  been  trying  to  break,  that  he  has 
been  continually  over  -  punished,  that  his 
keen  sense  of  justice  has  been  wounded 
until  it  cries  out  in  pain,  or  that  he  has 
been  fed  on  those  "  grievous  words  "  which 
never  fail  to  "  stir  up  anger." 

But  here  he  is  as  we  have  made  him,  and 
what  shall  we  do  for  him  now  ?  Obviously, 
find  out  the  cause  of  the  disease,  if  possible, 
and,  if  we  be  the  offenders,  repent  it  in 
anguish  and  bitterness,  and  strive  to  cast 
out  the  devils  which  we  ourselves  invited  in. 

In  the  first  place  —  and  this  is  not  weak- 
ness, but  common  sense  —  try  not  to  enter 
into  controversies  with  him,  avoid  provo- 
cation, and  endeavor  to  ward  off  absolute 
issues.  Distract  his  attention,  try  to  get 
the  desired  result  in  some  other  way,  but 
give  no  room  for  an  outburst  of  temper  if 
it  can  be  avoided,  remembering  that  every 
stone  broken  from  the  city's  walls  renders 
it  more  defenseless. 


AN   UNWALLED  CITY  83 

Do  not  fret  him  with  groundless  prohi- 
bitions, do  not  speak  to  him  quickly  and 
sharply,  and  never  meet  passion  with  pas- 
sion. If  you  punish  him  when  you  are 
angry,  he  clearly  sees  that  he,  because  he  is 
small  and  weak,  is  being  chastised  for  the 
same  fault  which  you,  being  large  and 
strong,  may  commit  with  impunity. 

After  one  of  these  outbursts  of  temper, 
do  not  reprove  and  admonish  the  rebel  until 
he  is  rested.  The  storm  descended  like  a 
very  hurricane  upon  the  waters  of  his  spirit, 
and  the  noise  of  the  waves  must  be  stilled 
before  the  mind  can  listen  to  reason.  When 
the  sun  comes  out,  after  the  storm,  is  the 
time  to  note  wreckage  and  take  measures 
for  future  safety.  Select  some  quiet,  happy 
hour,  then,  in  which  you  can  gently  warn 
him  of  his  besetting  sin,  and  teach  him  to 
be  on  his  guard  against  it.  Until  this  time 
comes,  and  he  is  in  a  condition  for  counsel 
and  punishment,  an  atmosphere  of  grief  and 
disapproval  may  be  made  to  encompass  him, 
which  he  will  feel  more  keenly  than  spoken 


84  AN   UN  WALLED  CITY 

words.  And  when  the  time  for  punishment 
does  come,  let  us  try  to  make  it,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  natural  penalty,  that  which  is 
the  inevitable  effect  of  given  cause ;  for,  as 
"  face  answereth  to  face  in  water,"  so  the 
feeling  of  justice  within  the  child  to  the 
eternal  justice  of  world-law. 

Finally,  let  us  be  patient,  but  firm  and 
unceasingly  watchful,  and  let  slip  no  oppor- 
tunity for  teaching  self-control  and  cultivat- 
ing strength  of  will ;  for  we  must  remember 
that  a  passionate  temper,  if  not  early  brought 
under  restraint,  is  as  dangerous  a  thing  as 
a  powder-magazine,  differing  only  in  that  it 
needs  no  outside  aid  to  produce  an  explo- 
sion, but  can  manufacture  and  apply  its 
own  igniting  power. 


PERILOUS   TIMES 

"  In  the  last  days  perilous  times  shall  come,  for  men 
shall  be  lovers  of  their  own  selves." 

On  looking  over  the  Concordance  one 
day,  for  a  fit  text  from  which  to  preach 
a  sermon  on  selfishness,  I  was  struck  by 
the  fact  that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment had  exactly  six  times  as  much  to  say 
upon  the  subject  as  had  the  early  priests 
and  kings  and  prophets.  Is  selfishness  a 
product  of  civilization  then  ?  Hardly  that, 
for  its  foundation-stones,  self-preserva- 
tion, interest  in  self,  love  of  seK,  are  primi- 
tive instincts  and  absolutely  necessary  ones. 

The  passion  must  always  have  existed 
and  doubtless  was  a  thousandfold  stronger 
in  the  childhood  of  the  world,  but  it  was 
probably  so  much  the  normal  state  that  no 
one  thought  of  taking  measures  against  it ; 
as,  were  it  customary  for  all  to  suffer  from 


86  PEBILOIJS   TIMES 

smallpox,  no  one  would   think  of   vaccina- 
tion. 

When  man  had  outgrown  the  animal 
state  in  which  self-preservation  was  his  first 
law,  stray  beams  of  thought  for  others  be- 
gan now  and  then  to  shine  in  upon  the 
darkness  of  his  soul,  but  it  was  left  for  the 
great  Teacher  of  all  time  to  bring  the  full 
glory  of  the  sunlight  when  He  commanded 
us  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves  and 
when  He  uttered  the  immortal  paradox, 
"  He  that  loseth  his  life  for  my  sake  shall 
find  it." 

The  very  young  child,  like  his  kinsfolk 
the  animals  and  his  far-away  brother  in  the 
Dark  Ages,  commonly  looks  at  life  from 
the  standpoint  of  his  own  desires  and  ne^ 
cessities,  and  has  as  yet  little  interest  in  or 
sympathy  with  the  feelings  of  any  one  else. 
This  is  normal  and  necessary  if  life  is  to  be 
well  nourished ;  and  it  is  unwise  to  force 
upon  him  too  early  the  duty  of  altruism, 
which  belongs  to  a  later  ethical  period. 
The  fact  that  the  word  altruism   is   com- 


PERILOUS  TIMES  87 

paratively  a  new  one,  grown  into  popular 
use  within  the  memory  of  some  of  us,  shows 
that  the  feeling  it  describes  has  not  long 
been  widespread,,  and  is  another  evidence 
that  we  must  not  expect  too  much  from  the 
child  in  this  direction. 

We  need  not  be  over-anxious,  then,  if 
baby  finds  himself  an  all-engrossing  subject 
in  his  earliest  years ;  but,  lest  this  self- 
interest  become  a  passion,  we  must  watch 
him  carefully  as  he  grows  older,  and  sur- 
round him  with  an  atmosphere  which  will 
gently,  unobtrusively,  suggest  to  him  the 
interests  of  others. 

Of  all  the  evil  passions  which  lurk  within 
the  breast  of  man,  surely  there  is  none  so 
black  and  hateful  as  selfishness ;  and  not 
only  is  it  to  be  feared  in  itself,  but  because 
it  is  the  mother  of  the  whole  Satanic  brood 
of  vices.  A  modern  writer  says  :  "  Selfish- 
ness is  the  fault  most  impossible  to  forgive  or 
excuse,  since  it  springs  neither  from  an  error 
of  judgment  nor  from  the  exaggeration  of  a 
generous  motive.  ...  It  is   the   result   of 


88  PERILOUS  TIMES 

a  cold-blooded,  self-concentrated  system  of 
calculation,  which  narrows  the  sympathies 
and  degenerates  the  mental  powers." 

Great  capabilities  for  it  lie  in  every 
nature  —  no,  I  may  not  make  so  broad  a 
statement,  for  now  and  then  one  meets 

"a purity  of  soul 
That  will  not  take  pollution,  ermine-like 
Armed  from  dishonor  by  its  own  soft  snow." 

Yet  these  are  the  exceptions,  and  the  ordi- 
nary, strong,  healthy,  hearty  child  starts  in 
life  with  almost  as  full  an  equipment  of  pos- 
sibilities for  evil  as  for  good. 

The  root  of  selfishness  is  doubtless  there  ; 
but  the  influences  which  surround  the  tiny 
human  being  will  determine  whether  it  shall 
lie  sleeping  underground  or  send  up  shoots 
of  rank  luxuriance.  Too  complete  devotion 
in  the  parents,  too  absolute  forgetfulness  of 
self  on  their  part,  wakens  no  similar  passion 
in  the  child,  but  rather  the  opposite  feeling. 
To  deny  ourselves  the  pleasure  of  self-denial 
towards  him  is  often  the  wisest  course ;  and 
to  attempt  to  bear  all  his  troubles,  to  save 


PEBILOUS   TIMES  89 

him  every  effort,  to  bend  our  wills  to  his,  to 
make  all  sacrifices  for  him,  expecting  none 
in  return  —  this  is  to  make  of  him  a  very 
Juggernaut,  whose  triumphal  car  will  one 
day  ride  over  our  prostrate  bodies.  Felix 
Adler  says,  in  his  remarkable  pamphlet  on 
"  Parents  and  Children  :  "  "  The  care  of 
children  is  the  great  means  of  stimulating 
and  preserving  unselfishness  in  the  world. 
The  love  of  children  is  the  great  balance- 
wheel  that  counteracts  the  strong  tendency 
towards  egotism."  The  thought  is  as  true 
as  it  is  beautiful,  but  some  of  us  need  to  be 
careful  lest  we  cultivate  our  own  plant  of 
seK-sacrifice  at  the  expense  of  the  child's. 
Unselfishness  is  a  habit  of  mind  which  may 
be  developed,  and  there  are  a  thousand 
simple  ways  in  which  the  training  may  be 
begun  even  in  the  earliest  days  of  existence. 
A  bit  of  some  dainty  given  up  for  love's  sake, 
a  miniature  task  performed  for  some  one,  an 
errand  within  the  house  which  baby  feet 
may  easily  perform,  a  temporary  sharing  of 
playthings  with  a  tiny  visitor,  the  tending  of 


90  PERILOUS  TIMES 

plants,  the  caring  for  pet  animals  —  all 
these  are  ordinary  daily  happenings  which 
may  easily  be  put  within  the  reach  of  any 
child,  and  which  are  the  beginning  of  life's 
service  to  life. 

It  is  absolutely  essential,  as  Froebel  says, 
to  give  outward  form  to  the  loving  thoughts 
that  stir  within  the  child's  heart,  remember- 
ing that  love  which  gains  no  expression 
either  in  thought  or  action  is  love  which 
droops  and  dies  away.  Here,  steadily,  surely, 
strongly  as  the  river  sweeps  to  the  ocean, 
the  subject  brings  me  to  the  kindergarten. 

There  is  no  spot  on  this  earth,  nor  in  any 
other  star  that  God  has  made,  so  absolutely 
and  eternally  fitted  to  teach  unselfishness  as 
is  that  "  free  republic  of  childhood  "  where 
the  principles  of  Froebel  hold  their  sway, 
for  no  other  educator  has  ever  so  felt  the 
"  inseparable  dependency  of  all  spirits  upon 
one  another's  being  and  their  essential  and 
perfect  depending  on  their  Creator's." 

He  knew,  as  Carlyle  says,  that  "each 
individual  person   is  a  part   of   the   great 


PERILOUS  TIMES  91 

venous-arterial  stream  that  circulates  through 
all  Space  and  all  Time,"  and  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  kindergartien  is  held  together 
by  his  recognition  of  that  truth.  The  very 
circle  in  which  the  children  sing  and  play, 
the  games  in  which  no  one  may  usurp 
another's  place,  the  thought  that  underlies 
them,  which  is  the  inseparable  connection 
of  all  life,  the  work  in  common,  the  labor 
gladly  done  for  others,  the  care  for  the 
weaker  children,  the  aid  given  to  those 
younger  and  less  advanced,  the  nurture  of 
plants  and  animals  —  all  these  are  so  many 
air-currents,  which  tak^  together  make  a 
mighty  wind  blowing  away  the  vice  of  self- 
ishness like  a  noxious  vapor.  Send  the 
selfish  child  to  the  true  kindergarten,  keep 
him  in  the  life-giving  atmosphere  at  any 
cost,  and  if  the  springs  of  altruism  in  your 
own  heart  be  exhausted,  visit  it  yourself, 
that  you  may  see  in  miniature  "  a  perfect 
union  in  which  no  man  can  labor  for  him- 
self without  laboring  at  the  same  time  for 
all  others." 


A  DEVISER  OF  MISCHIEFS 

"  Thy  tongue  deviseth  mischiefs ;  like  a  sharp  razor, 
■working  deceitfully." 

The  word  lie  is  a  very  ugly  one,  —  doubt- 
less not  uglier  than  the  thing  itself,  but  too 
harsh  to  describe  some  of  the  untruths  of 
children,  which  can  scarcely  be  judged  by 
the  same  standard  as  those  of  grown  people. 
The  lies  (so  called)  of  these  little  ones  need 
long  and  careful  observation,  and  form  a 
most  important  object  of  study,  because  of 
the  possibility  of  discovering  the  causes 
which  produce  them,  applying  remedies  and 
using  the  experience  gained,  in  the  treatment 
of  other  delinquents. 

Speaking  from  long  and  close  observation, 
from  introspection,  and  from  conversation 
with  parents,  I  should  say  that  untruthfulness 
in  early  years  is  commonly  due  to  one  of  the 
following  causes  :  — 


A  DEVISER  OF  MISCHIEFS  93 

Imitation.  Remember  that  imitation  is 
one  of  the  four  fundamental  instincts  of 
childhood,  and  if  the  little  one  is  untruthful, 
inquire  if,  in  his  immediate  circle  of  parents, 
nurses,  teachers,  and  companions,  there  be 
not  some  one  who  is  unconsciously  serving 
him  as  a  model.  He  may  never  have  heard 
a  direct  untruth,  but  evasion,  subterfuge, 
and  concealment  are  brethren  of  lies,  and 
so  are  the  falsehoods  of  politeness. 

It  is  folly  for  us  to  preach  to  him  of  the 
beauty  of  truth  if  he  seldom  sees  it  practiced  ; 
it  is  idle  to  point  him  to  a  road  down  which 
we  never  go  ourselves ;  and  before  we  give 
him  any  maxims  on  veracity  let  us  ponder 
Emerson's  terrible  words,  "  How  can  I  hear 
what  you  say,  when  what  you  are  is  thunder- 
ing in  my  ears  ?  " 

Fear.  Of  aU  the  motives  to  falsehood, 
fear  seems  to  be  the  most  potent  and  the 
commonest,  begins  earliest,  and  lasts  longest. 

Morbid  fear  of  various  kinds  is  a  well- 
known  symptom  of  neurasthenia,  and  is 
much  more  common  among  children  than  is 


94  A  DEVISER   OF  MISCHIEFS 

ordinarily  supposed.  It  need  scarcely  be 
considered  in  the  case  of  a  strong,  healthy, 
mentally  well-balanced  child,  but  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
abnormal  fear,  and  that  in  its  various  degrees 
it  is  a  disease,  and  a  disease  of  grave  import. 
In  its  normal  state  it  is  placed  within  us 
as  a  kind  of  necessary  brake  or  safety- 
attachment  ;  but  note  if,  by  your  treatment 
of  the  child,  you  have  not  so  aggravated  the 
instinct  that  he  is  rendered  absolutely  inca- 
pable of  truth-telling  when  under  its  influ- 
ence. It  is  not  probable  that  he  stands  in 
bodily  terror  of  you,  though  cruelty  to  chil- 
dren is  still  to  be  found,  even  among  the 
educated  classes,  but  he  fears  your  impa- 
tience, your  passion,  and  your  cutting  rebuke. 
Perhaps  he  is  by  nature  unusually  sensitive, 
and  a  hasty  word  which  you  would  hardly 
feel  falls  on  him  like  the  blow  of  a  Russian 
knout.  He  deserves  punishment,  and  prob- 
ably knows  it  as  well  as  you  do,  but  your 
former  judgments  of  him  have  been  so  dis- 
proportionately severe,  and    your   uniform 


A  DEVISER   OF  MISCHIEFS  95 

treatment  so  harsh,  that  you  have  added  a 
thousand  times  to  his  natural  equipment  of 
fear,  while  you  have  lessened  his  courage 
in  the  same  proportion.  Tyranny  always 
breeds  deception ;  if  you  doubt  it,  you  can 
turn  to  history  for  proof. 

Desire  for  approval.  Close  on  the  heels  of 
fear  as  a  cause  of  falsehood  comes  the  desire 
to  please,  which  is  almost  a  mania  in  some 
children.  When  normally  developed,  it  is  a 
useful  passion  which  can  safely  be  appealed 
to  in  educational  training ;  but  if  unwisely 
treated,  it  may  become  a  moral  deformity. 

It  is  one  of  the  signs,  when  seen  in  excess, 
of  a  weak  and  sensitive  nature  wliich  cannot 
be  content  unless  its  every  word  and  action 
pleases  those  it  loves.  The  child  who  pos- 
sesses it  hungers  for  approval,  .and,  when 
truth  is  in  question,  withholds,  colors,  or 
distorts  it,  according  as  he  fancies  it  will  be 
most  pleasing. 

The  falsehoods  which  grow  from  excessive 
desire  to  please  are  near  akin  to  those  which 
are  prompted  by  the  passion  of  emulation. 


96  A  DEVISEE   OF  MISCHIEFS 

and  many  of  our  school  practices  pander  to 
both  of  them.  Prize-giving  and  the  system 
of  ranking  by  credits  are  fruitful  sources  of 
deceit,  and  are  as  much  to  be  condemned  as 
excessive  punishments. 

/Self-conceit  Egotism  may  be  said  to 
prompt  another  class  of  falsehoods  which  be- 
long to  later  childhood  (as  well  as  to  ma- 
turity), and  which  are  generally  brilliant 
fictions  designed  to  surround  the  narrator 
with  a  blaze  of  glory.  What  Charles  Eeade 
calls  "  fluent,  fertile,  interesting,  sonorous, 
prompt,  audacious  liars  "  belong  to  this  class, 
and  in  early  years  it  is  not  difficult  to  cure 
them  by  pricking  the  bubble  of  self-conceit. 

Perhaps  we  may  also  include  in  this  group 
the  children  who  tell  the  lies  of  jealousy,  for 
this  surely  has  its  root  in  egotism.  These 
are  they  who  can  never  learn  of  any  feat  of 
strength  but  they  swear  their  father  can  do 
more,  who  never  hear  of  any  wonderful  ani- 
mal but  they  have  it  confined  on  their  own 
premises,  who  never  know  of  any  interesting 
event  but  they  want  to  persuade  you  that  it 


A  DEVISER  OF  MISCHIEFS  97 

has  happened,  is  happening,  or  will  happen 
to  them. 

Imagination.  There  is  another  so-called 
class  of  lies  which  are  merely  products  of  ex- 
cessive imagination,  and  in  little  children 
these  are  often  entirely  misunderstood  and 
mistreated.  The  child  recounts  many  won- 
derful stories  which  never  occurred,  nor  by 
any  possibility  could  occur ;  but  to  tell  him 
they  are  false,  and  punish  him  for  them,  as 
is  often  done,  is  to  drive  him  into  lying. 
Imagination  is  his  dominant  power,  and  what 
he  sees  happen  in  his  dream-world,  he  gives 
as  an  actuality.  His  stage  of  mental  develop- 
ment corresponds  to  the  myth-age  of  the 
race,  and  by  and  by  the  age  of  reason  will 
appear,  when  he  will  learn  to  separate  and 
classify  his  mental  impressions.  In  the  mean- 
time, while  we  listen  to  the  young  improvi- 
satore,  we  can,  by  a  little  gentle  comment, 
begin  to  make  clear  to  him  the  difference 
between  a  "  play  "  and  a  "  truly  story,"  and 
the  place  which  each  must  occupy. 

Pseudophohia.   The  student  of  childhood 


98  A  DEVISER   OF  MISCHIEFS 

also  recognizes  that  lying  may  proceed  from 
a  mental  obliquity,  an  absolute  inability  to 
see  the  truth  clearly ;  but  this  is  exceedingly 
uncommon,  and  constitutes  a  form  of  mental 
disease  which  the  modern  psychologists  call 
pseudopJiohia. 

While  we  are  discussing  these  various 
forms  of  lies,  let  us  note  that  there  is  fre- 
quently a  period  in  the  lives  of  young  children 
when  it  is  impossible  to  place  much  reliance 
on  their  statements  ;  but  this  is  commonly 
only  a  passing  phase  and  need  give  us  no 
serious  anxiety,  for  it  may  be  due  as  much 
to  their  imperfect  grasp  of  language  as  to 
any  other  cause  we  have  mentioned. 

In  the  general  treatment  of  falsehood  it  is 
wise  to  remember  that  Froebel  believed  in- 
ward clearness  to  proceed  from  outward  or- 
der, and  turn  to  the  kindergarten  as  one  of 
our  aids  to  righteousness. 

A  continued  series  of  exercises  in  exact- 
ness, accuracy,  and  measurement  both  of 
hand,  eye,  and  brain  ;  repeated  observation 
that  one  false  step  at  the  beginning  of  work 


A  DEVISER   OF  MISCHIEFS  99 

brings  failure  at  every  succeeding  step;  a 
clear  conception  of  cause  and  effect,  —  all 
these  are  helps  to  truth-telling,  and  all  these 
belong  to  the  kindergarten. 

Here,  also,  the  imagination  is  guided,  not 
suppressed,  and  new  outlets  for  it  found  in 
the  hearing  of  stories  which  in  themselves 
may  serve  as  a  rebuke  for  falsehood,  if  the 
moral  is  woven  into  the  very  fabric  of  the 
tale. 

Whether  in  home,  kindergarten,  or  school, 
however,  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  "  the  high- 
est in  the  child  is  aroused  only  by  example," 
and  provide  it  not  alone  in  ourselves,  but  in 
his  nurses,  teachers,  and  companions.  We 
may  also  note,  as  we  look  back  over  the  sub- 
ject, that  the  great  cause  of  untruth  is  weak- 
ness in  one  form  or  another,  and  therefore 
that  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  in  the  training 
of  children  to  use  every  possible  means  to 
discourage  self-indulgence,  to  cultivate  self- 
respect,  and  to  elevate  the  sense  of  personal 
honor.  The  whole  nature  of  the  weak  and 
faltering  human  creature  needs  tonics,  exer- 


100  A  DEVISEE   OF  MISCHIEFS 

cise,  and  strengthening  baths,  that  it  may- 
run  the  race  of  life  successfully.  Not  only 
is  this  true,  but  we  must  remember,  in  the 
words  of  one  of  the  world's  great  teachers,^ 
that  "  loyalty  to  truth  is  the  most  rare  and 
difficult  of  human  qualities,  for  such  loyalty, 
as  it  grows  in  perfection,  asks  ever  more 
and  more  of  us,  and  sets  before  us  a  stan- 
dard always  rising  higher  and  higher." 

1  Thomas  Hughes. 


"TELL  ME  A  STORY" 

"  Since  they  be  children,  tell  them  of  battles  and  kings, 
horses,  devils,  elephants,  and  angels,  but  omit  not  to  tell 
them  of  love  and  such-like." 

If  you  follow  the  dusky  track  of  the  twi- 
light as  it  tiptoes  round  the  world,  in  land 
after  land  you  and  the  twilight  together 
will  steal  upon  a  little  circle  of  children 
gathered  about  the  knees  of  a  story-teller. 
It  may  be  where  the  stars  are  lighting  their 
tapers  in  the  deep  sky  above  the  desert 
sands ;  it  may  be  by  the  flickering  blubber 
lamp  in  the  ice  hut ;  by  the  firefly's  torch 
in  the  green  gloom  of  the  tropic  forest; 
where  the  feathery  bamboos  wave  and  the 
tea-plant  blossoms  white  ;  or  by  the  wigwam 
blaze  on  the  lonely  prairie. 

Earth  is  circled  with  this  vast  company 
of  story-tellers,  nightly  surrounded  by  their 
little  ones,  black,  and  white,  and  red,  and 


102  TELL  ME  A  STORY 

brown,  and  yellow;  their  eager,  upturned 
faces  and  eloquent  voices  all  uttering  the 
same  plea,  "  Tell  us  a  story,  oh,  tell  us  a 
story !  " 

So  it  was  in  the  plains  of  Mamre  when 
Abraham  told  tales  of  mighty  kings  and 
warriors  of  old  to  his  dearly  beloved  Isaac ; 
so  it  was  in  Egypt  when  the  waiting-maids 
of  the  Princess  poured  their  folk-lore  into 
baby  Moses'  listening  ears ;  so  it  was  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden  probably,  though  really 
Eve  must  have  been  a  person  of  such  slight 
experience  and  scanty  information  that  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  what  kind  of  stories  she 
could  have  told  to  little  Cain  and  Abel. 

So  it  is,  so  it  has  been,  so  shall  it  always 
be,  for  the  love  of  stories  is  inherent  in  the 
race.  With  some  children  a  calm  delight, 
with  others  an  absolute  passion,  yet  it  exists 
in  all  in  fair  measure,  and  for  ages  past  has 
been  a  great  moral  and  educational  agency. 
We  of  to-day,  who  live  in  a  world  of  books, 
and  who  insist  that  our  children  shall  be 
early  taught   to   read,  that   they   may  the 


TELL  ME  A  STOBT  103 

sooner,  as  Seguin  wittily  says,  "cover  the 
emptiness  of  their  own  minds  with  the 
patchwork  of  others"  —  we  hardly  realize, 
perhaps,  the  marvelous  effect  which  a  well- 
told  story  may  produce  upon  the  virgin 
mind  and  soul.  It  can  but  seem  vastly 
more  real  and  vital  than  the  same  thing 
seen  in  cold  type  on  a  printed  page,  and  it 
has  the  added  charm  of  look  and  move- 
ment and  fitting  gesture,  in  short,  of  dra- 
matic expression.  Before  the  days  of  book- 
knowledge,  all  the  simple  learning  of  the 
race  was  gained  at  the  feet  of  the  story- 
teller, who  was  the  conserver  of  history  and 
the  repository  of  scientific  fact.  "The 
household  story,"  as  has  been  very  well 
said,  "  was  the  earliest  ethical  study  in  the 
educational  curriculum  of  the  race ; "  and 
the  extent  to  which  it  was  used  for  this 
purpose  may  be  measured  by  the  strong 
moral  sentiment  pervading  most  of  the 
nursery  tales  and  childish  legends  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  olden  time. 
In  these  days  of  the  thoughtful  study  of 


104  TELL  ME  A  STORY 

childhood  it  has  come  to  be  pretty  generally 
felt  that  educational  training,  to  be  success- 
ful, must  be  suited  to  child-nature,  and  that 
any  exercise  in  which  the  normal,  and  for 
that  matter  the  abnormal  child  takes  un- 
varying delight  must  therefore,  and  on  that 
account,  be  the  one  which  may  be  made 
most  serviceable  to  him.  From  the  days  of 
Eve  the  instinctive  mother  has  ministered 
to  the  love  of  stories;  but  she  cannot,  in 
every  case,  be  trusted  to  do  so  wisely  until 
she  knows  the  reasons  for  its  existence  and 
the  purposes  it  may  be  made  to  serve. 

What  is  the  secret  of  the  charm  which 
story-telling  has  for  the  child?  Is  it  not, 
first,  perhaps,  the  fact  that  it  interprets  life 
—  wonderful,  mysterious,  fascinating  life  — 
to  him,  and  places  in  his  hand  a  sort  of 
telescope,  through  which  he  eagerly  peers 
into  the  world  across  the  threshold  of  his 
nursery  ?  Is  it  not,  again,  that  it  addresses 
the  imagination  —  his  dominant  power,  his 
delight,  his  way  of  escape,  that  he  may  be 
able  to  bear  the  dullness,  the  denseness,  the 


TELL  ME  A  STORY  105 

want  of  comprehension,  of  the  grown-up 
world?  Stories  satisfy,  too,  his  impatient 
feeling  of  justice,  which  the  slow  march  of 
earthly  events  so  often  irritates,  while  they 
gratify  his  love  of  novelty  and  variety  and 
his  healthy  curiosity.  Froebel  asserts  that 
they  arouse  the  inner  life  of  the  listener, 
that  their  flow  carries  him  out  of  himself, 
and  he  thereby  learns  to  measure  himself 
more  truly. 

Fortunate,  indeed,  are  we  that  what  is  so 
dear  a  delight  may  at  the  same  time  be 
used  as  an  agent  in  mental  and  spiritual 
uplifting.  Consider  the  story-teller,  for  in- 
stance, merely  as  the  humble  workman  who 
rolls  up  the  curtain  that  the  drama  of  lit- 
erature may  begin.  The  curtain  must  be 
raised,  else  the  play  will  remain  a  mystery, 
and  an  occasional  half -heard  voice  only  serve 
to  tantalize  the  unfortunate  audience. 

Regarded  in  its  proper  light  as  the  be- 
ginning of  literature,  the  story  assumes  a 
more  important  position,  and  the  duty  at 
once  becomes   clear  of  selecting  it  wisely, 


106  TELL  ME  A  STORT 

that  it  may  serve  to  lead  to  higher  things. 
Because  a  child  has  a  fresh,  youthful  ap- 
petite for  tales  of  any  kind,  it  does  not 
follow  that  they  will  all  give  him  equal 
nourishment.  There  are  certain  essentials 
which  must  always  be  considered  in  select- 
ing a  story.  First,  it  must  be  true;  by 
which  I  mean  true  when  "ideally  inter- 
preted." The  incidents  need  never  have 
really  occurred ;  indeed,  some  of  the  truest 
things  have  never  yet  happened,  for  "  Fact 
at  best,"  as  George  Macdonald  says,  "is 
but  a  garment  of  truth,  which  has  ten  thou- 
sand changes  of  raiment  woven  in  the  same 
loom."  Then  it  must  be  suitable  in  length, 
for  the  art  in  this  is  like  that  of  a  letter  — 
to  leave  off  so  that  the  hearer  shall  wish 
there  was  more  of  it.  Should  it  not  also 
keep  in  touch  with  the  dominant  interest  of 
the  day,  if  this  be  one  appropriate  to  child- 
hood? Indeed,  if  it  is  not  appropriate, 
better  seize  the  interest  and  turn  it  to  nobler 
uses,  for  when  the  town  is  ringing  with  ex- 
citement over  the  outcome  of  a  prize-fight 


TELL  ME  A  STORY  107 

it  is  idle  to  suppose  your  boy  will  be  deaf  to 
the  echoes. 

Why  not  take  the  occasion  to  introduce 
him  to  some  of  the  grand  figures  of  my- 
thology, to  the  real  heroes  of  history,  or  to 
recite  some  stirring  ballad  of  doughty  deeds 
which  will  make  him  feel  what  courage 
really  is,  and  how  a  true  knight  uses  his 
strength.  So  Mazzini  advised  mothers  to 
do  in  the  twilight  hour,  —  to  tell  the  chil- 
dren tales  of  great  men  who  had  worked 
and  fought,  and  loved  the  people. 

That  the  story  should  be  clothed  in  well- 
chosen,  fitting  words,  and  narrated  in  as 
graceful  a  style  as  possible,  goes  without 
saying  if  you  agree  that  the  germs  of  liter- 
ary taste  begin  to  grow  under  its  influence. 
I  sincerely  believe,  however,  that  it  is  better 
to  tell  a  story  most  clumsily  and  with  a  halt- 
ing tongue  than  not  to  tell  it  at  all.  If  it 
have  a  vital  interest  and  hold  a  kernel  of 
truth,  the  child  will  appropriate  from  it  what 
he  needs,  in  spite  of  its  rude  setting ;  for 
familiarity  with  good  English  and  literary 


108  TELL  ME  A  STORY 

taste,  valuable  as  they  are,  are  not  the  only 
things  developed  by  story-telling,  —  they  are 
merely  the  beginning  of  the  long  category. 
We  cannot  teach  a  child  by  maxims,  for 
instance  (and  I  doubt  if  we  can  the  adult 
until  he  has  seen  experience  illustrate 
them)  ;  but  pour  the  truth  they  hold  into 
the  mould  of  an  attractive  story,  and  watch 
the  effect  upon  the  mind.  The  tale  is  often 
asked  for,  if  it  is  a  really  good  one,  and  by 
and  by  the  truth  it  enfolds  takes  root  and 
grows,  and  will  keep  on  growing  though  ad- 
verse winds  of  doctrine  blow.  By  means  of 
these  narratives  the  child  is  confronted  with 
actions  and  situations  quite  new  to  him,  but 
upon  which  he  must  perforce  pass  uncon- 
scious judgment,  and  thus  his  discrimination 
is  aroused  and  his  ideals  are  strengthened. 
"  Thus,"  as  Mr.  Hamilton  Mabie  says, 
"  the  individual  life  learns  the  lessons  which 
universal  life  has  learned,  and  pieces  out  its 
limited  personal  experience  with  the  experi- 
ence of  humanity."  You  may  spend  hours, 
for  instance,  in  moralizing  to  a  child  upon 


TELL  ME  A  STORY  109 

the  beauty  of  unselfishness,  and  not  produce 
a  thousandth  part  of  the  effect  which  you 
might  have  made  by  telling  him  the  story  of 
gallant  Philip  Sidney  and  the  cup  of  cold 
water  given  to  one  whose  necessities  were 
greater  than  his. 

We  must  never  neglect  the  purely  imagi- 
native tale  when  dealing  with  children,  for, 
though  we  grown  folk  may  live  in  a  matter- 
of-fact  world,  the  little  ones  are  still  by  choice 
in  the  realm  of  fancy,  and  their  place  of 
residence  must  be  considered  when  we  se- 
lect their  literature.  If  imagination  be  the 
strongest  element  in  the  child's  nature  (and 
who  can  doubt  it  who  really  knows  him), 
then  it  obviously  needs  wise  guidance  rather 
than  repression.  We  may  be  sure  the  power 
is  there  for  some  good  purpose,  and  that 
we  ignore  one  of  our  highest  possibilities  for 
influence  when  we  pass  it  by. 

The  fairy  tale,  with  its  simple,  uninvolved 
plot,  its  transparent  personages,  its  poetic 
atmosphere,  and  its  hazy,  indefinite  time  of 
action,  is  absolutely  suited  to  children,  who, 


110  TELL  ME  A  STOBY 

as  Mr.  Howells  says,  "  do  not  very  distinctly 
know  their  dreams  from  their  experiences, 
and  live  in  a  world  where  both  project  the 
same  quality  of  shadow."  Doubtless  there 
are  fairy  tales  entirely  unfit  for  children, 
which  have  been  perverted  since  they 
trickled  long  ago  from  the  spring  of  univer- 
sal myth ;  but  the  same  objection  may  be 
made  to  absolute  historic  happenings,  and 
the  story-teller  above  all  other  persons  needs 
constantly  to  exercise  his  judgment  and  his 
critical  faculty. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  fear  of  telling  the 
fairy  tale  too  often  when  we  reflect  that  the 
great  stream  of  literature  at  our  command 
has  a  host  of  branches,  of  which  this  is  only 
one,  and  that  "  the  earth  is  full  of  tales  to 
him  who  listens." 

There  are  the  science  stories,  which  may 
be  made  most  valuable  and  interesting,  and 
the  patriotic  ones,  especially  appropriate  to 
the  nation's  holidays,  which  deal  with  the 
beginnings  of  history,  and,  by  leading  the 
child  to  admire,  gradually  bring  him  to  love 


TELL  ME  A  STORY  111 

his  country.  Then  there  is  perhaps  now  and 
then  some  tale  which  will  develop  sympathy 
with  our  kinsfolk  the  animals,  or  some  wise 
little  fable  which  will  instruct  as  weU  as 
amuse.  And  why,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is 
beautiful,  do  we  confine  ourselves  so  largely 
to  prose  when  talking  and  reading  to  chil- 
dren ?  They  are  a  hundred,  a  thousand 
times  more  susceptible  than  we  to  the  linked 
sweetness  of  cadenced  syllables,  to  the  mu- 
sical fall  or  martial  swing  of  verse.  I  have 
seen  many  a  stolid,  lumpish  child  sit,  breath- 
ing heavily,  staring  at  the  opposite  wall, 
quite  vacuous  and  unimpressed  during  the 
recital  of  an  ordinary  story,  and  yet  if  a  line 
or  two  of  poetry  has  fallen  on  his  dull  ear 
he  has  slowly  turned  toward  the  speaker, 
his  glazed  eye  brightening,  and  animation 
transforming  his  whole  expression.  This 
he  will  do  oftentimes,  though  the  poem  be 
almost  entirely  beyond  his  comprehension; 
and  he  will  even  rouse  from  his  lethargy 
sufficiently  to  give  a  feeble  encore,  though 
he  has  never  before  been  known  to  express 
any  form  of  emotion. 


112  TELL  ME  A  STORY 

One  great  drawback  to  the  telling  of 
stories,  either  in  prose  or  verse,  is  that  there 
are  so  few  that  can  be  bought  ready-made, 
as  it  were.  There  seems  to  be  a  very  gen- 
eral misconception  on  the  part  of  authors  as 
to  what  the  child  really  likes,  doubtless  due 
to  a  mere  bowing  acquaintance  with  him,  or 
to  a  superficial  observation  of  the  workings 
of  his  mind.  Many  collections  of  stories  are 
about  children  rather  than  for  them,  and 
are  much  more  appropriate  for  the  adult  in 
their  careful  delineation  of  character  and 
accurate  painting  of  emotions.  Others  are 
patiently  written  down  to  the  child's  level, 
as  the  saying  goes,  there  being  some  general 
misunderstanding  as  to  where  that  level  is, 
and  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  author  to 
comprehend  that  it  is  frequently  quite  above 
his  own  head. 

If  one  has  had  long  experience  with  chil- 
dren, however,  and  knows  them  as  well  as 
one  can  know  beings  of  another  star,  it  is 
comparatively  easy  to  adapt  literature  to 
their  needs,   to   shorten   here,  to  lengthen 


TELL  ME  A  STORY  113 

there,  and  generally  to  fit  the  garment  to 
the  wearer.  Again,  one  may  lack  experi- 
ence entirely  and  yet  have  an  innate  fitness 
for  the  work  and  an  intuitive  comprehension 
of  and  sympathy  with  childhood,  which  is  in 
effect  a  kind  of  genius  ;  and  for  these  two 
classes  of  people  the  work  of  story-telling  is 
easy. 

But  if  one  have  neither  natural  adaptation 
nor  experience,  still  I  say.  Tell  the  stories  ; 
tell  the  stories ;  a  thousand  times,  tell  the 
stories !  You  have  no  cold,  unsympathetic 
audience  to  deal  with  ;  the  child  is  helpful, 
receptive,  warm,  eager,  friendly.  His 
whole-hearted  interest,  his  surprise,  admira- 
tion, and  wise  comment,  will  spur  you  on  to 
greater  efforts,  and  when  the  story  is  con- 
cluded you  will  wonder  which  of  you  has 
been  the  greater  gainer. 


"THE  AUTHENTIC"   IN   KINDERGAR- 
TEN TRAINING 

"  I  serve  you  not,  if  you  I  follow, 
Shadow- like,  o'er  hill  and  hollow." 

A  SERIES  of  discriminating  essays  by  G. 
H.  Lewes  on  the  "  Principles  of  Success  in 
Literature  "  gives  as  one  of  these  that  of 
Authenticity.  "  What  writers  have  seen 
and  felt  may  not  be  new,"  he  says,  "  it  may 
not  be  intrinsically  important ;  nevertheless, 
if  authentic,  it  has  its  value,  and  a  far  greater 
value  than  anything  reported  by  them  at 
second  hand.  We  cannot  demand  from 
every  man  that  he  have  unusual  depth  of 
insight  or  exceptional  experiences ;  but  we 
demand  of  him  that  he  give  us  of  his  best, 
and  his  best  cannot  be  another's.  The  facts 
seen  through  the  vision  of  another,  reported 
on  the  witness  of  another,  may  be  true,  but 
the  reporter  cannot  vouch  for  them.     Let 


KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  115 
the  original  observer  speak  for  himself. 
Otherwise  only  rumors  are  set  afloat." 

Is  not  this  equally  true  in  all  art,  whether 
it  be  painting,  sculpture,  literature,  or  edu- 
cation ?  Of  what  use  the  attempt  to  paint 
a  composition  never  seen  by  one's  self  with 
eye  of  flesh,  or  eye  of  spirit,  but  merely  se- 
lected as  a  taking  subject  ?  Of  what  avail 
to  spend  months  of  time  and  labor  in  carv- 
ing a  statue,  the  ideal  for  which  never  ex- 
isted in  one's  own  brain,  which  is  the  half- 
assimilated  fruit  of  another's  suggestion  and 
which  when  completed  must  lack  the 
strength  of  sincerity?  A  landsman  who 
scarcely  knew  the  rig  of  one  ship  from  an- 
other would  make  a  poor  figure  at  writing 
a  novel  of  the  sea,  and  should  he  attempt  to 
do  so  because  sea  stories  happened  to  be  pop- 
ular, he  would  inevitably  make  a  failure  be- 
cause hi^  narrative  was  not  the  outcome  of 
personal  experience.  How  could  he  describe 
the  seethe  of  the  foam,  the  sparkling  roll 
of  the  wave,  the  tang  of  the  salt  air,  the 
song  of  the  wind  in  the  sails,  the  dancing, 


116         KINDERGARTEN   TRAINING 
springing,  buoyant  motion,  if  he  had  never 
been  at  sea,  but  gathered  his  data  from  the 
Encyclopaedia  and  wrote  his  tale  in  a  garret 
chamber  ? 

Who  would  attempt  to  write  a  poem  deal- 
ing with  the  dark  intrigues,  the  miseries,  the 
complications,  the  imbroglios,  of  life  in  a 
palace  of  the  Orient,  if  he  received  his  in- 
formation at  second  hand  from  a  man  who 
had  once  been  behind  the  scenes  ?  If  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  acknowledged  that  he 
knew  nothing  personally  of  the  holy  mys- 
teries he  was  discussing,  but  had  the  facts 
from  his  father  in  whose  experience  he  be- 
lieved, we  should  scorn  to  listen  to  his  idle 
words. 

It  is  the  authentic  which  is  of  value,  it  is 
the  report  at  first  hand,  the  painting  which 
bears  the  mark  of  personality,  the  statue 
which  shows  the  touch  of  the  individual,  the 
poem,  the  novel,  the  essay,  fresh,  original, 
glowing  with  conviction,  and  valuable  be- 
cause the  old  facts,  ideas,  and  thoughts  have 
been  passed  through  a  new  mind,  and  have 
come  forth  stamped  with  a  new  image. 


KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  117 
A  commentary  on  a  commentary  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  never  yet  convinced  the  un- 
believer of  the  truths  of  righteousness ;  notes 
on  a  French  translation  of  a  German  ren- 
dering of  Shakespeare's  plays  would  hardly 
succeed  in  impressing  the  reader  with  the 
genius  of  the  great  dramatist ;  and  if  we  take 
the  subject  into  the  realm  of  education,  we 
shall  find  that  the  teaching  which  is  the 
product  of  our  own  convictions  is  the  only 
one  which  is  of  value.  One  must  write, 
paint,  carve,  act,  think,  speak,  teach,  in  ac- 
cordance with  one's  own  temperament,  one's 
own  character  and  individuality.  Bright, 
breezy.  Miss  So-and-So  may  be  delightful 
when  she  gives  her  lessons  and  exercises  in 
her  own  vivacious  manner,  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  Miss  Such -an -One  with  her 
serene,  reflective  temperament  could  teach  in 
any  such  manner,  even  though  Miss  So-and- 
So  finds  it  most  successful.  Mr.  Blank's 
pamphlet  of  devices  in  number-teaching  is 
most  vigorous  and  helpful ;  Mr.  Dash  ac- 
knowledges   this,   he   gets    many   valuable 


118  KINBEBGABTEN  TBAINING 
hints  from  it,  but  he  knows  that  he  cannot 
teach  number  in  that  way.  He  has  learned, 
as  Emerson  says,  that  the  inventor  did  it  be- 
cause it  was  natural  to  him,  but  for  any  one 
else  to  do  merely  what  he  has  done  is  the 
veriest  of  slavish  servitude,  out  of  which 
nothing  good  can  come. 

In  all  education,  and  in  kindergarten 
education  in  particular,  there  is  too  much 
using  of  John  Brown's  notes  on  John  Smith's 
commentary  on  John  Jones's  translation  of 
the  original. 

We  accept  one  person's  experience  in 
art-teaching,  another's  views  on  discipline, 
another's  method  of  musical  instruction,  still 
another's  way  of  imparting  the  elements  of 
science,  until  our  work  is  a  thing  of  shreds 
and  patches,  caught  together  here  and  there 
with  a  thread  of  our  own  personality.  Not 
that  all  these  things  were  not  of  value  to  the 
minds  in  which  they  grew  and  to  which  they 
were  adapted ;  not  that  we  cannot  gain  much 
from  reading  and  observation ;  but  that  we 
must   learn   to  discover  in   each  new  sug- 


EINBEBGABTEN  TBAINING  119 
gestion  the  valuable  principle  it  contains, 
and  retain  and  assimilate  that,  not  the  garb 
in  which  it  was  clothed. 

Froebel  himself  gives  the  kindergartner 
repeated  warnings  on  the  dangers  of  disciple- 
ship,  saying,  "  Again,  a  life  whose  ideal  value 
has  been  perfectly  established  in  experience 
never  aims  to  serve  as  a  model  in  its  form, 
but  only  in  its  essence,  —  in  its  spirit.  It  is 
the  greatest  mistake  to  suppose  that  spiritual 
human  perfection  can  serve  as  a  model  in  its 
form.  This  accounts  for  the  common  expe- 
rience, that  the  taking  of  such  external 
manifestations  of  perfection  as  examples, 
instead  of  elevating  mankind,  checks  —  nay, 
represses  its  development." 

Montaigne  speaks  of  the  "  indiscreet 
scribblers  "  of  his  time,  who  laboriously  quote 
whole  pages  from  ancient  authors  "with  a 
design  by  that  means  to  illustrate  their  own 
writings;"  but,  he  says,  this  "infinite  dis- 
similitude of  ornaments  renders  the  complex- 
ion of  their  own  compositions  so  pale,  sallow, 
and  deformed  that  they  lose  much  more  than 
they  get." 


120         KINDERGARTEN   TRAINING 

The  further  the  principle  of  imitation,  of 
feeble  following  after,  is  continued,  the  more 
noteworthy  are  its  evil  effects.  It  is  like  a 
child's  first  writing-copy,  which  he  labori- 
ously traces  down  the  slate.  He  looks  each 
time  at  the  last  line  he  wrote,  not  at  the 
model  at  the  top,  and  so  it  happens  that  the 
fourth  line  has  already  lost  much  of  its 
resemblance  to  the  original  and  is  deciphered 
only  with  difficulty,  while  the  line  at  the 
bottom  is  a  succession  of  meaningless  strokes. 
Kindergarten  training  is  often  like  the 
writing  on  the  slate,  carried  out  with  patient 
labor,  but,  ah,  how  woefully  different  from 
the  original  it  follows !  And  when  this 
imitation  is  followed  by  another  imitation, 
then  indeed  it  becomes  like  the  last  row  on 
the  slate,  absolutely  meaningless,  had  one 
not  seen  the  model  somewhere. 

Miss  A.  perhaps  is  a  most  successful 
kindergartner.  She  brings  a  "  pair  of  fresh 
eyes  "  to  her  work ;  she  is  original,  independ- 
ent, a  student,  and  a  thinker.  Her  success 
is  spread  abroad,  her  kindergarten  is  visited 


KINBEBGARTEN   TRAINING         121 

and  admired.  By  and  by  some  one  comes 
and  begs  that  Miss  A.  will  give  her  a  course 
of  kindergarten  training.  Miss  A.  is  modest, 
has  never  thought  of  such  a  thing,  and 
declines  the  honor,  but  other  persons  come, 
and  still  others,  and  ultimately  she  is  per- 
suaded to  undertake  a  class.  She  does  the 
work  with  her  might ;  she  studies  and  she 
thinks.  She  makes  mistakes,  for  she  is  a 
woman,  therefore  human ;  but  the  interpre- 
tations of  Froebel  which  she  gives  are  the 
outcome  of  her  own  thought  and  experience 
and  study;  her  instruction  is  authentic;  it 
is  fresh,  suggestive ;  it  is  the  result  of  con- 
viction. Her  "originality  grows  by  pro- 
gressive deepening  of  insight  into  the  causes 
and  motives  of  the  thing  imitated,  and  with 
the  ascending  comprehension  of  means  and 
purposes."  Her  work  succeeds  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  her  first  class  leaves  her 
sheltering  wing,  filled  with  enthusiasm  and 
deeply  convinced  of  the  sacred  nature  of  the 
duties  they  have  undertaken.  Miss  B.  is 
one  of  their  number,  and  after  a  few  years' 


122  KINDERGABTEN  TRAINING 
experience  she  concludes  to  begin  training 
work,  not  perhaps  from  any  such  pressure 
of  public  opinion  as  influenced  Miss  A.,  but 
because  she  honestly  thinks  she  is  fitted  for 
it.  But  Miss  B.  is  not  a  thinker ;  she  uses 
Miss  A.'s  commentaries,  confident  that  there 
can  be  nothing  better.  She  remembers  how 
strongly  they  stirred  her  growing  spirit,  but 
forgets  that  they  can  never  be  delivered  at 
second  hand  with  the  same  enthusiasm  and 
conviction,  forgets  also,  or  has  never  learned, 
that "  imitation  can  never  go  above  its  level  " 
and  that  "  the  imitator  dooms  himself  to 
hopeless  mediocrity  from  the  very  outset." 
She  uses  all  Miss  A.'s  practical  methods, 
most  of  which  fit  her  but  poorly,  and,  be- 
cause she  does  not  feed  the  flame  of  origi- 
nality and  independence  which  God  gave  to 
her,  it  smoulders  down  and  out  into  dead, 
gray  ashes.  She  is  earnest,  she  is  conscien- 
tious, but  she  is  killing  the  spirit  with  the 
letter.  She  might  have  done  good  work  had 
she  developed  her  own  power,  her  own  gifts, 
but  as  she  merely  repeats  the  opinions  of 


EINDERGAETEN  TRAINING  123 
another,  she  fails  to  impress  her  class  with 
the  holiness  of  the  ground  on  which  they 
tread. 

Close  upon  Miss  B.'s  heels  follows  Miss 
C,  who  is  probably  the  least  hopeful  mem- 
ber of  the  class,  and  who  begins  to  teach 
others  long  before  she  has  digested  her 
experience  as  a  student. 

With  lightning  rapidity  Miss  D.  arrives 
upon  the  scene.  Introduced  to  kindergarten 
work  by  Miss  C,  she  naturally  fails  to  look 
upon  it  in  a  serious  light.  She  sees  in  it  an 
agreeable  and  easy  way  of  earning  a  live- 
lihood, and  immediately  seeks  for  others 
around  whom  she  can  wreathe  her  octopus 
arms,  and  to  whom  she  can  impart  the 
tricks  of  the  trade. 

Now  indeed  is  the  writing  blurred  and 
meaningless;  but  Miss  E.  turns  the  slate 
over  and  begins  work  on  the  other  side,  and 
it  is  probable  that  in  remote  mountain  vil- 
lages and  solitary  hamlets  her  pupils.  Misses 
F.,  G.,  H.,  I.,  J.,  and  K.,  are  now  buying 
slate-pencils  and  preparing  to  write. 


124         KINDERGARTEN   TRAINING 

The  undoubted  fact  has  not  here  been 
touched  upon  that  Miss  A.  frequently  has  a 
pupil  a  hundred  times  more  gifted  thaii  her- 
self. Once  taught  to  use  her  eagle  wings, 
she  soars  to  regions  far  beyond  her  teacher's 
reach,  and  her  flight  is  a  swift  onward  rush 
of  power,  strength,  and  inspiration. 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  Miss  B.,  who  is, 
after  all,  careful,  conscientious,  and  pains- 
taking, succeeds  now  and  then  in  giving  the 
key  of  the  universe  to  some  eager  soul  who 
uses  it  aright  and  unlocks  for  herself  and 
others  the  stores  of  wisdom  that  lie  hidden 
therein. 

But  we  may  be  assured,  with  all  assur- 
ance, that  Misses  C,  D.,  and  E.  have  never 
helped  one  struggling  life,  but  have  only 
falsified  and  held  up  to  scorn  an  educational 
idea  which,  when  properly  interpreted,  is  one 
of  truth,  beauty,  and  righteousness. 

Why  may  we  not  establish  a  Pre-Rapha- 
elite Brotherhood  of  Kindergartners,  and, 
casting  aside  all  the  traditions,  the  preju- 
dices, the  rumors,  the  hearsay  evidence  in 


KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  125 
regard  to  the  Froebelian  principles,  go  back 
to  the  fouDtain-head  and  once  again  drink 
deeply  there  ? 

In  the  old  days  before  Raphael,  each 
artist,  musing  in  his  solitary  cloister,  or 
pacing  the  narrow  streets  of  his  walled  city, 
developed  his  powers  in  quiet  and  in  silence, 
and  without  influence  laid  upon  him  from 
without.  If  he  sang,  or  painted,  or  carved, 
it  was  but  the  flowering  of  his  powers  of 
expression,  which  had  slowly  grown  and 
budded  without  artiflcial  stimulus.  What- 
ever the  character  of  the  creation,  it  must 
have  been  authentic,  for  the  artist  had  only 
himself  to  imitate. 

In  our  complex,  crowded  modern  life  such 
work  is  no  longer  possible ;  we  must  touch 
others  and  be  influenced  by  them  ;  we  must 
"  do  good  and  communicate,"  but  whenever 
the  kindergartner  writes  and  speaks  on  the 
principles  of  Froebel,  or  seeks  to  impart 
them  to  others,  let  her  assure  herself  that 
she  does  it  with  authenticity,  that  her  inter- 
pretations, whatever  they  may  be,  are  her 


126  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING 

own,  the  fruit  of  her  study  and  experience, 
and  therefore  entitled  to  consideration. 

We  have  perfected  many  of  the  details 
of  Froebel's  system,  and  shall  perfect  more ; 
we  have  pruned  in  one  place,  have  added  in 
another,  and  have  discarded  some  features 
which  no  longer  seemed  essential ;  but  we 
have  not  yet  improved  upon  the  principles 
of  the  discoverer. 

A  devoted  study  of  those  principles,  car- 
ried on  sometimes  without  the  aid  of  com- 
mentators or  commentaries,  a  voyage  on  our 
own  account  into  the  realms  of  truth,  will 
ever  give  us  fresh  stores  of  enthusiasm  and 
inspiration. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  WORK 

**  Properly  thou  hast  no  other  knowledge  but  what  thou 
hast  got  by  working." 

Carlyle  concludes  his  chapter  on  the 
"  Everlasting  Yea  "  with  the  words :  "  Pro- 
duce !  Produce !  Were  it  but  the  pitif ulest 
infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  Product,  produce 
it  in  God's  name!  'Tis  the  utmost  thou 
hast  in  thee;  out  with  it!  Get  leave  to 
work  in  this  world,  —  't  is  the  best  you  get 
at  all ;  for  God  in  cursing  gives  us  better 
gifts  than  men  in  benediction.  God  says 
'  Sweat  for  foreheads,'  men  say  '  Crowns ; ' 
and  so  we  are  crowned,  —  ay!  gashed,  by 
some  tormenting  circle  of  steel  which  snaps 
with  a  secret  spring.  Get  work.  Be  sure 
't  is  better  than  what  you  work  to  get." 

The  uplifting  of  labor  —  it  is  a  common 
thought  and  phrase  to-day — depends  largely 
on  the  uplifting  of  the  laborer,  that  is,  upon 


V- 


128  THE  GOSPEL  OF  WOBE 

qualifying  him  for  service  that  shall  enno- 
ble, as  every  craft  exercising  thought,  intel- 
ligence, and  skill  necessarily  tends  to  do. 
Not  long  ago  a  very  forcible  and  searching 
address  upon  this  topic  was  made  before 
a  Charity  Conference  by  a  plain,  practical 
business  man  who  was  not  too  plain,  and 
was  yet  sufficiently  practical,  to  see  the  sub- 
ject in  a  comprehensive  way,  and  to  dis- 
cover among  other  things  how  absolutely 
the  whole  spirit  of  kindergarten  work  is  in 
line  with  the  best  thought  of  the  day  upon 
the  question. 

The  host  of  drudges,  as  Carlyle  calls  them, 
can  now  do  only  drudgery ;  so,  in  servile  toil 
life  wears  itself  away,  and  the  ranks  of  the 
feeble,  the  dull,  the  vicious,  the  diseased,  the 
criminal,  are  constantly  replenished. 

Our  business  man  remarked,  among  other 
things,  —  and  all  who  deal  with  the  problem 
of  want  in  our  great  cities  know  that  he 
was  right,  —  that  the  reason  the  very  poor 
are  unable  to  secure  work  above  drudgery 
is  largely  because  they  are  fit  for  nothing 


THE  GOSPEL   OF   WORK  129 

better,  and  thus  they  drag  down  labor  of 
every  grade,  and  heavily  clog  the  wheels  of 
the  social  mechanism.  This  fact  has  long 
been  so  keenly  felt  by  thinking  people  that 
attention  has  for  some  time  past  been  di- 
rected to  the  necessity  of  the  education  of 
labor,  and  art  schools,  schools  of  design, 
manual  training-schools,  and  even  the  com- 
mon schools  in  some  of  their  later  features 
have  begun  to  supply  the  need. 

Valuable  as  all  these  educational  institu- 
tions are,  they  yet  lack  much,  not  only  in 
that  they  are  sporadic,  rather  than  univer- 
sal, —  for  a  few  children,  not  for  all,  —  but 
in  that  they  lack  a  proper  foundation.  They 
come  much  too  late  ^if  the  lives  of  most 
young  persons  submitted  to  their  influence 
to  do  the  good  they  might  have  done  under 
happier  circumstances,  for  probably,  in  too 
many  cases,  muscles  have  become  stiff  and 
hands  awkward,  while  aesthetic  taste  is  past 
the  best  formative  period,  and  mental  hab- 
its, difficult  to  change,  have  already  been 
partially  fixed. 


130  THE  GOSPEL   OF   WOBK 

0  We   who    believe    in    the    kindergarten 

1  consider  that  if  labor  is  to  be  successfully 
raised,  the  lever  must  be  pushed  well  under 
at  the  very  bottom  of  the  weight,  and  then 
the  force  applied,  and  we  also  believe  that 
Froebel  has  given  us  the  proper  implement 
for  the  task,  and  shown  us  how  to  use  it. 
It  seems  to  us  in  our  experience  among 
little  children  that  the  kindergarten  is  the 
greatest  of  all  instrumentalities  for  pro- 
ducing originative,  thoughtful  labor,  and  we 
note  that  it  sometimes  literally  seems  to 
make,  out  of  most  unpromising  material, 
too,  judgment,  quick  sight,  subtle  touch,  the 
sense  of  beauty,  and  creative  ability,  —  all 
powers  which,  when  once  developed,  forever 
lift  manual  labor  above  the  level  of  mere 
mechanical  toil. 

The  following  verse  is  written  above  the 
doors  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training- 
School :  — 

"  Hail  to  the  skillful,  cunning  hand  I 
Hail  to  the  cultured  mind  ! 
Contending  for  the  world's  command, 
Here  let  them  be  combined  !  " 


THE  GOSPEL   OF   WORK  131 

The  same  words  might  fitly  be  set  over 
the  entrance  to  every  good  kindergarten, 
although  another  line,  — 

"  Hail  to  the  loving,  helpful  heart !  " 

would  really  be  needed  to  make  the  verse 
fully  comprehensive  of  our  purposes. 

Laying  aside  for  a  time  the  distinctive 
and  special  value  of  the  kind  of  work 
given  in  the  kindergarten  and  its  value  as 
early  manual  training,  we  cannot  fail  to  see 
its  general  bearing  upon  the  formation  of 
habits  of  industry.  ■ — ' 

If  the  kindergartner  has  the  art  to  pro-      1 
vide  the  right  conditions  for  their  growth, 
the  virtues  of  neatness,  order,  economy,  and 
carefulness    flourish  with    us    as   in   their 
native  air. 

The  normal  child  is  never  unhappy  if  he 
has  sufiicient  and  suitable  occupation,  for  to 
be  idle  is  against  the  very  constitution  of 
his  nature.  In  the  kindergarten  he  is  al- 
ways busy  and  therefore,  generally  speak- 
ing, always  contented  and  joyous.  The 
striking   peculiarity   of    the    good    kinder- 


J 


132  THE  GOSPEL  OF  WOBE 

garten  —  one  that  never  fails  to  impress 
the  novice  and  the  casual  visitor,  as  well  as 
those  grown  old  in  the  service — is  the  atmo- 
sphere of  happiness  diffused  throughout  the 
room.  It  is  exceptional  to  see  a  child 
among  the  company  who  is  anything  but 
absorbed  and  happy  in  his  work,  and  the 
removal  of  that  work  is  one  of  the  severest 
penalties  that  can  be  inflicted  upon  the 
small  evil-doer. 

Habits  of  obedience  to  law  must  care- 
fully be  cultivated  before  the  children  can 
be  persuaded  cheerfully  to  give  up  their 
occupation,  whatever  it  may  be,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  the  short  work-period,  and  at 
Christmas  time,  or  other  festival  season,  the 
teacher  must  constantly  be  on  the  alert,  lest 
the  spirit  of  industry  exceed  its  proper 
limits  and  become  a  delirium.  Under  wise 
guidance,  the  child  trained  according  to 
Froebel  becomes  not  only  industrious,  but 
self -helpful  also,  and  a  sure  test  of  the  fit- 
ness of  the  kindergartner  for  her  vocation 
is  whether  or  not  her  pupil  comes  up  to  this 


THE  GOSPEL   OF   WORE  133 

standard.  If  she  has  succeeded,  the  child 
is  not  only  busy  and  happy  under  her  in- 
fluence, but  busy,  happy,  and  resourceful  at 
home,  a  famous  mother' s-helper,  originator 
of  delightful  games,  and  source  of  fasci- 
nating employment  to  lesser  ones  of  the 
flock. 

Froebel  had  no  mind,  however,  that  his 
gospel  of  work  should  be  preached  in  the 
kindergarten  only,  for  he  notes  in  all  his 
writings,  and  particularly  in  "The  Educa- 
tion of  Man,"  the  instinctive  (and  some- 
times exceedingly  troublesome)  desire  of 
the  child  to  extend  his  feeble  help  to  what- 
ever household  occupation  may  be  going  on, 
and  he  urges  parents,  by  all  that  they  hold 
sacred  in  the  nature  of  that  child,  and  by 
all  their  hopes  for  his  future,  to  cherish  this 
desire,  to  afford  opportunities  for  its  grati- 
fication, lest  once  suppressed  it  arise  no 
more.  To  do.  this,  to  think  of  small  ways 
in  which  a  small  person  may  be  helpful,  or 
at  least  think  he  is  helpful;  to  resist  the 
temptation  to  send  him  into  the  garden  or 


134  THE  GOSPEL  OF  WORK 

into  the  nursery  —  anywhere  out  of  the 
way,  when  household  work  is  going  on  — 
often  costs  great  pains  and  trouble,  which 
is  only  to  be  cheerfully  borne  by  taking  a 
long,  refreshing  look  into  the  future  and 
thinking  of  the  immense  labor  thereby 
saved  at  the  other  end  of  the  line.  Alas, 
it  is  so  difficult  to  live  with  the  children 
and  resist  the  temptation  to  substitute  some 
other  preposition  for  that  small,  significant 
word. 

There  is  still  another  phase  of  the  gospel 
of  work  as  preached  by  Froebel,  —  one  much 
more  technical,  quite  distinct  from  the  habit 
of  cheerful  occupation  I  have  dwelt  upon, 
and  more  closely  related,  perhaps,  to  the 
uplifting  of  labor. 

It  is  probably  conceded  by  every  one  who 
has  taken  thought  of  the  matter  at  all,  that 
manual  skill  is  acquired  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  the  kindergarten,  notwithstanding 
the  youth  of  the  pupils,  and  that  it  is  a 
valuable  acquisition  nobody  appears  to 
doubt,  though  it  would  be  interesting  to  dis- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  WORK  135 

cover  for  what  reasons  it  is  so  considered. 
The  answers  to  the  question  would  of  course 
be  many  and  varied,  according  as  the  sub- 
ject is  seen  from  this  or  that  standpoint. 
One  person  would  say,  possibly :  "  These 
children  have  hands,  and  many  of  them  will 
be  dependent  upon  the  use  of  them  for  sup- 
port; therefore  train  them  in  the  indus- 
tries, the  members  of  the  poorer  classes 
particularly." 

Such  reasoning  is  sufficiently  good,  per- 
haps, as  far  as  it  goes,  though  the  poor  of 
this  year  may  be  the  rich  of  fifteen  years  to 
come,  and  the  rich  of  to-day  may  be,  by  and 
by,  among  the  poorest. 

Others  say :  "  Idle  fingers  are  the  devil's 
tools.  The  children's  hands  will  be  em- 
ployed in  any  case,  and  if  we  do  not  furnish 
useful  occupation,  mischief  will  be  the  alter- 
native." 

Very  true,  we  answer,  although  not  so 
far-reaching  a  view  of  the  question  as  might 
be  desired. 

Still  another  person  might  reply,  and  he 


136  THE  GOSPEL   OF  WOBK 

would  be  riglit,  we  believe:  "These  little 
children  have  hands  capable  of  becoming  ac- 
tive, powerful  instruments  of  an  active,  in- 
telligent, self -determining  will ;  therefore,  in 
order  that  the  human  creature  be  conscious 
of  his  capabilities  in  all  directions,  and  be 
able  to  express  his  ideas  in  other  ways  than 
by  words  alone,  the  hands  must  be  trained, 
and  the  best  tangible  results  will  follow." 
But  these  tangible  results  are  only  second- 
ary, it  must  be  understood.  It  is  the  higher 
meaning  of  labor  which  we  believe  to  be  the 
most  valuable  acquisition  to  children.  It  is 
as  Alice  Wellington  Rollins  said :  "  We  are 
really  to  aim  at  results  only  as  a  dog  aims 
at  catching  the  stick  his  master  has  thrown 
for  him.  He  does  not  care  for  the  stick; 
what  he  likes  is  the  running." 

Each  tangible  result  of  kindergarten  work 
or  action  is  only  a  symbol  of  something  more 
valuable  which  the  child  has  acquired  in 
doing  it.  The  finished  product  is  not  half 
so  much  a  matter  of  pride  as  the  conscious- 
ness of  power  to  create,  for  the  kindergarten 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  WOBK  137 

is  not,  and  was  never  intended  to  be,  an  in- 
fant industrial  school,  although  we  believe 
that  it  forms  a  basis  for  a  rational  system  of 
education  from  which  work  is  not  excluded. 

Dr.  W.  N.  Hailmann  says :  "  The  train- 
ing of  the  hand  is  an  essential  need  of 
education,  because  — 

"  1.  The  hand  is  the  instrument  by  which 
man  controls,  modifies,  and  prepares  sur- 
roundings for  use. 

"  2.  Because  the  hand  is  the  medium  by 
which  the  internal  (mind)  is  brought  into 
living,  actual  connection  with  the  external 
(matter). 

"  3.  Because  the  hand  is  the  organ  of  the 
plastic  expression  of  ideas." 

The  recognition  of  practical  activity  as 
an  integral  part  of  education  is  one  of  the 
salient  truths  of  Froebel's  system.  Many 
educators  had  previously  attached  value  to 
manual  exercise  and  handicraft  of  various 
kinds,  but  rather  as  parts  of  physical  train- 
ing and  technical  preparation  for  life,  espe- 
cially among  the  poorer  classes;  but  with 


\      138  THE  GOSPEL  OF  WORK 

Froebel  all  outward  training  had  an  inward 

'  correlative :  some  mental  faculty  was  always 
to  be  consciously  brought  into  play  to  be 
strengthened  and  directed  aright,  while  the 
limbs  were  gaining  dexterity  and  vigor. 
p  He  did  not,  in  fact,  value  manual  work 
for  the  sake  merely  of  making  a  better 
workman,  but  for  the  sake  of  making  a 
more  complete  human  being. 

While  the  kindergarten  trains  the  hands 
of  little  children  to  express  their  thoughts 
and  fancies  skillfully,  and,  so  far  as  their 
capabilities  go,  with  accuracy,  it  trains  with 
equal  care  their  powers  of  language  as 
another  means  of  expression.  The  kinder- 
garten child  may  be  better  prepared  than 
others  for  industrial  pursuits,  but  he  is  also, 
we  believe,  better  prepared  for  all  future 
life,  whatever  it  may  be,  inasmuch  as  his 
powers  and  faculties  have  received  equal 
and  harmonious  training. 

Our  system  of  public  instruction  has,  up 
to  the  present,  generally  begun  with  the 
abstract,   with  which   it   should  close,  and 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  WOBK  139 

this  procedure  is  obviously  in  the  highest 
degree  irrational,  particularly  for  the  mass 
of  the  people  whose  task  in  later  life  is 
work  that  must  be  productive.  Any  system 
of  education  which  leaves  the  hand  entirely 
out  of  the  question  must  therefore  be  griev- 
ously in  error,  although  manual  training 
must  never  be  suffered  to  supersede  in  any 
way  the  rightful  claims  of  mental  training. 
The  first  educational  task  is  to  make  the 
child  acquainted  with  the  things  of  the 
material  world  which  constitute  the  basis 
of  the  abstract,  for,  as  Froebel  says,  "  the 
A  B  C  of  thiugs  must  precede  the  ABC 
of  words,  and  give  to  the  words  their  true 
foundations."  Knowledge  of  concrete  things 
can  only  be  gained  by  handling  them,  and 
the  formation  and  transformation  of  mate- 
rial is  therefore  for  children  the  best  mode 
of  gaining  this  knowledge.  Froebel's  occu- 
pations offer  all  possible  facilities  for  this 
experimentation,  and  give  the  activity  which 
is  necessary  to  childish  powers,  that  they 
may  not  be  lost  for  want  of  use.     We  place 


140  THE  GOSPEL  OF  WOBE 

much  greater  stress  upon  fertility  of  inven- 
tion in  all  our  work  than  upon  perfection 
of  execution,  which  indeed  is  hardly  pos- 
sible or  to  be  desired  at  this  early  age. 
There  is  no  carelessness,  it  must  be  under- 
stood ;  everything  must  be  done,  if  not  ab- 
solutely well,  at  least  as  well  as  the  child 
can  do  it,  but  what  we  consider  the  impor- 
tant matter  is  "  not  so  much  that  he  shall 
do  the  right  thing,  as  that  he  shall  like 
doing  the  right  thing." 

All  the  kindergarten  exercises  are  closely 
related  one  to  the  other,  and  the  work- 
materials  in  every  case  supplement  and 
translate  one  another,  for  Froebel's  great 
hope  for  education  is  in  unification  of 
thought  and  deed  and  life.  The  kindergar- 
ten is  intended  to  be  an  organic  whole,  and 
Froebel  pleads  for  unification  of  thought 
and  unification  of  life  by  means  of  the  uni- 
fication of  the  materials  of  thought  and  uni- 
fication of  the  preparation  for  life.  An 
all-sided  connectedness  gives  an  interest,  a 
novelty,   an   intelligibility   to    school   work 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  WORK  141 

that  nothing  else  can  give,  and  to  this  may 
be  attributed  the  fact  already  noted,  that 
there  are  surprisingly  few  sulky,  indifferent, 
languid  children  in  good  kindergartens. 

"  Life,  action,  and  knowledge  were  to 
Froebel  the  three  notes  of  one  harmonious 
chord,"  and  he  says,  therefore,  "  God  made 
every  child  with  hands  as  well  as  head,  and 
if  the  brain  depends  upon  systematic  train- 
ing for  its  power,  so  does  the  hand,  and  so 
does  the  moral  sense.  The  individual  is 
bereft  of  power  in  proportion  as  any  faculty 
is  left  untrained,  and  thus  the  will  of  God 
is  in  so  far  left  unfulfilled."  He  believed 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  habit  of  work  as  a 
resource  and  as  a  blessing,  but  in  so  edu- 
cating the  worker  in  the  totality  of  his 
powers  from  his  earliest  days,  by  training 
his  hands,  by  cultivating  his  senses,  by  fur- 
nishing him  with  employment  suited  to  de- 
velop the  aesthetic  faculties,  that  his  labor 
would  be  no  longer  mechanical  toil,  but 
original,  creative  production  valuable  to  the 
world,  because  stamped  with  the  image  of  a 


142  THE  GOSPEL   OF  WORK 

new  individuality.  This  is,  in  brief,  the 
view  of  the  kindergarten  as  to  the  harmo- 
nious development  of  the  powers  of  each 
human  being,  its  conception  of  the  training 
which  must  be  given  if  he  is  to  take  his 
place  in  the  world  as  an  active,  useful  mem- 
ber of  society. 

We  do  not  claim,  however,  that  the  kin- 
dergarten has  said  the  last  word  on  the 
subject,  that  it  has  reached  the  ultima  ihule 
of  educational  progress,  for  we  realize  that 
it  has  but  set  out  in  the  right  direction. 
Froebel  himself  went  no  further  than  mod- 
estly to  say,  after  half  a  century  of  study, 
observation,  and  experiment,  "  This  is,  in 
my  judgment,  about  the  way  children  should 
be  trained." 


THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  SAINT 
TUMBLER 

,"  Happy  must  be  his  heart  and  mind 
Whose  task  it  is  to  help  his  kind." 

There  is  a  twelfth  century  church  legend 
which,  for  the  good  of  humanity,  should  be 
issued  in  cheap  tract  form  in  all  known 
languages  and  distributed  to  every  grown 
person  of  both  sexes,  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries. Had  I  my  way,  men  should  stand  on 
street  corners  in  all  towns  and  cities,  press- 
ing these  pamphlets  upon  each  passer-by; 
and  mounted  colporteurs  should  gallop  over 
every  land,  urging  their  swift  steeds  through 
rocky  mountain  defile  and  dry  and  desolate 
waste,  that  no  poor  hut,  sequestered  hamlet, 
or  outlying  homestead  might  be  forgotten  in 
the  general  distribution. 

More  than  this,  I  would,  could  I  find  a 
few  faithful  followers,  engage  to  robe  my- 


144     BROTHERHOOD   OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 

self  as  a  minstrel,  and  with  my  lute  wander 
the  world  over,  telling  the  tale  in  every 
spot  where  an  audience  of  two  persons  could 
be  gathered  together.  These  two,  or  half 
of  them,  at  least,  I  should  hope  straight- 
way to  enroll  into  a  general  association,  to 
be  known  as  the  Brotherhood  of  Saint  Tum- 
bler,—  a  devoted  band  ready  to  lay  down 
life  itself  for  its  beliefs,  and  pledged  to 
expound  them  throughout  the  world.  For 
myself,  as  the  promoter  of  the  order,  and 
therefore  presumably  most  conversant  with 
its  principles,  I  should  reserve  a  special 
field,  now  white  for  the  harvest,  —  say  in 
Russia,  Germany,  and  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  and  as  I  swept  my  lute  in  the 
principal  marts  of  traffic,  this  would  be,  in 
brief,  and  diverted  of  the  minstrel's  arts, 
the  substance  of  my  tale. 

Once  upon  a  time,  —  long  ago,  God 
knows,  for  those  were  other  days  and  other 
people,  —  there  dwelt  afar  in  France  a 
strolling  mountebank,  a  juggler,  a  circus 


BROTHERHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER  145 
dancer,  a  tumbler,  —  what  you  will,  —  who 
made  his  living  among  the  kindly  country 
folk  by  the  various  tricks  of  his  calling. 
He  was  a  simple,  merry  fellow,  who  danced 
and  tumbled  for  pure  joy  of  life  and  delight 
in  the  world,  and  wherever  he  went,  a  trail 
of  song  and  laughter  followed  him.  Chil- 
dren shrieked  with  delight  and  toddled  into 
the  street,  clapping  their  fat  hands  when 
they  saw  his  bright  dress  and  his  glittering 
spangles,  and  staid  fathers  stopped  their 
work,  and  mothers  ran  with  babies  to  the 
doors,  that  they  might  catch  the  sparkle  of 
his  eyes  and  the  gleam  of  the  white  teeth 
behind  the  laughing  lips,  as  he  tumbled  in 
the  dust.  His  merry  heart  made  a  cheerful 
countenance  in  all  who  saw  him;  his  pre- 
sence was  a  continual  feast,  and  the  few 
coppers  men  threw  him  for  his  capers  would 
have  been  well  spent  had  they  been  gold 
pieces. 

Now  this  poor  tumbler  had  a  heart  full  of 
tender  faith  and  reverence,  and  seeing  how 
valuable  men  deemed  the  simple  talents  God 


146  BBOTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 
had  given  him,  he  resolved  to  offer  them  up 
in  thanksgiving  to  the  source  from  whence 
they  came.  So  he  sought  out  an  ancient 
monastery,  and  being  admitted  there  as  one 
of  the  ministering  brothers,  resolved  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  worship 
of  the  Queen  of  Heaven. 

But  now,  alas,  for  the  first  time  he  felt 
his  inferiority,  for  while  priests,  deacons, 
and  sub-deacons  all  might  engage  in  the 
religious  services,  he,  ignorant  of  books  or 
letters,  had  no  part  among  them.  He  wan- 
dered disconsolate  through  the  old  gray 
building,  and  at  last  in  a  desolate  crypt 
found  a  forgotten  altar  and  a  dusty  image 
of  the  Virgin  set  upon  it. 

Here  was  an  opportunity  for  service, 
alone  and  unseen,  free  from  the  criticism  of 
his  learned  fellows ;  what  could  he  do  here 
to  pleasure  the  Blessed  Lady?  Ah,  he 
knew  nothing  save  the  tricks  of  his  trade, 
but  sweet  mothers  and  innocent  little  ones 
had  always  smiled  upon  them,  and  why 
should  not  the  ever  holy  Mother,  friend  of 


BROTHERHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER  147 
children,  accept  them,  smiling  also,  if  he 
but  performed  them  with  the  full  perfection 
of  his  art  ?  So  he  threw  his  robe  upon  the 
damp  stones,  and  in  the  silent  dusk,  before 
the  deserted  altar,  began  his  leaps,  his  con- 
tortions, and  his  somersaults  with  all  the 
ardor  of  religious  enthusiasm. 

Day  after  day,  in  these  incongruous  sur- 
roundings, the  strange,  silent,  grotesque 
service  was  continued,  until  the  poor  tum- 
bler, half  fainting  with  exhaustion,  fancied 
at  last  that  he  saw  the  parted  lips  of  the 
Virgin  smiling  upon  him.  Overcome  by 
fatigue  and  emotion,  he  sank  into  a  death- 
like swoon,  and  after  a  long  interval,  being 
missed  by  the  brethren,  was  finally  tracked 
to  the  lonely  altar.  They  entered  eagerly, 
tapers  in  hand,  but  their  lights  were  dimmed 
by  the  moonlike  radiance  that  overbrimmed 
the  crypt,  for,  as  they  stood  in  awe  and 
wonder,  above  the  ignorant  mountebank 
hovered  the  Blessed  Queen  of  Heaven  her- 
self, and  a  sky  full  of  glorious  angels. 


148     BBOTHERHOOD   OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 

Now  my  hope  would  be  that  if  I  played 
my  lute  with  art,  if  I  told  my  tale  with 
what  grace  God  had  given  me,  and  at  least 
with  all  the  ardor  of  Blessed  Saint  Tumbler 
himself,  that,  as  its  last  words  left  my  lips, 
certain  persons  would  force  themselves 
through  the  crowd,  trembling  with  eager- 
ness to  be  sworn  into  the  order.  I  should 
receive  them  gladly,  but  I  should  know  from 
their  ready  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  that 
they  had  probably  practiced  it  unwittingly 
from  their  youth  up,  and  while  I  sent  them 
away  at  once  as  missionaries,  I  should  de- 
vote all  my  eloquence  to  the  Doubting 
Thomases  among  the  crowd,  who  greatly 
needing  the  benefits  of  the  order  themselves, 
yet  were  skeptical  of  its  value  to  the  world. 

I  should  lay  aside  my  lute,  and  we  would 
reason  together,  and  these  are  some  of  the 
things  I  should  probably  say,  though  they 
would  scarcely  be  so  didactic  in  form  as 
they  here  appear. 

We  talk  a  great  deal  about  the  wisdom 


BBOTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER  149 
of  Solomon,  my  friends,  but  I  wonder  if  we 
have  any  idea  of  how  many  and  what  sensi- 
ble things  he  had  to  say  upon  the  value  of 
cheerfulness.  The  "  Mirth  Cure,"  recently 
advocated  by  some  French  physicians,  is 
really  neither  so  novel  nor  so  original  as 
the  critics  would  have  us  think,  for  it  is 
thousands  of  years  since  the  great  king  of 
Israel  declared  that  a  merry  heart  doeth 
good  like  a  medicine.  Nor  is  Solomon  the 
only  famous  writer  who  upholds  the  Mirth 
Cure,  for  Horace  and  Milton  and  Cervantes 
and  Shakespeare,  especially  Shakespeare, 
have  scores  of  wise  and  brilliant  things  to 
say  about  that  "merriment  which  bars  a 
thousand  harms  and  lengthens  life."  That 
this  statement  in  regard  to  merriment  is 
true  to  scientific  fact,  and  not  merely  a  hazy 
poetic  generality,  is  provable  enough,  and 
any  one  of  us  could  doubtless  furnish  a 
dozen  instances  in  point,  were  such  required 
to  support  the  argument.  It  is  possible 
that  some  of  the  marvelous  healing  ad- 
duced by  the  mental  scientists  is  near  akin 


150  BEOTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 
to  that  performed  by  the  Mirth  Cure,  for 
the  peculiar  beliefs  of  these  devoted  people 
certainly  seem  to  produce  in  them  a  marked 
serenity  and  joyousness  of  disposition,  beau- 
tiful to  see  in  an  anxious  and  troubled 
world.  And  again,  still  looking  at  the 
subject  from  the  standpoint  of  self,  tomes 
might  be  written  on  the  value  of  cheer- 
fulness to  the  human  mind,  of  the  healthy 
glow  it  diffuses  over  thought,  of  the  sweet 
sanity  of  contemplation  it  makes  possible, 
of  the  sunny  mental  tone  it  engenders,  vig- 
orously shining  away  clouds  of  depression 
and  trouble  that  threaten  permanent  injury 
to  the  sensitive  climate  of  the  brain. 

But  can  we  think  of  the  subject  from  the 
standpoint  of  self  alone?  Is  it  not  altruistic 
in  its  very  nature  ?  Was  not  Dry  den  quite 
right  when  he  said :  — 

"  Nature,  in  zeal  for  human  amity, 
Denies  or  damps  an  undivided  joy ; 
Joy  is  an  import ;  joy  is  an  exchange ; 
Joy  flies  monopolists ;  joy  calls  for  two." 

Can   a  real   gayety   of    heart,   one   that 


BBOTHEEROOB  OF  SAINT  TUMBLEB  151 
wells  up  from  within,  be  pent  in  one's  own 
breast?  Must  it  not  gusb  out,  like  the 
spring  itself,  for  the  refreshing  of  every 
wayfarer  ? 

Is  it  not  true,  in  Stevenson's  words,  —  he 
to  whom  joy  was  a  religion,  —  that  by  being 
happy  we  sow  anonymous  benefits  upon  the 
world,  which  remain  unknown  even  to  our- 
selves ?  That  gallant  spirit,  frail,  suffering, 
weighted  with  pain  and  weakness,  and  yet 
making  so  brave  a  fight,  presenting  to  the 
world  so  serene  and  undaunted  a  front,  fur- 
nishes a  fit  text  indeed  from  which  to 
preach  a  sermon  on  cheerfulness,  —  one 
which  should  put  to  shame  the  grumbler 
and  the  misanthrope. 

Is  not  joy,  —  for  these  are  all  merely  con- 
versational suggestions,  to  be  filled  out  by 
the  hearer,  —  is  not  joy  infectious  and  con- 
tagious also  ?  Think  of  a  skylark  caroling 
up  into  the  mist,  of  the  fire-glow  on  a  rainy 
day,  or  better  still,  of  a  baby's  smile  and 
the  light  that  comes  into  every  face  as, 
carried  through  a  crowded  car,  the  sunny 


152  BROTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 
glance  sliines  backward  over  the  mother's 
shoulder.  It  is  one  of  the  commonest  inci- 
dents of  every-day  life,  this,  for  babies  are 
common  enough,  and  fortunately,  on  their 
bright  faces,  smiles  are  equally  so.  It  is 
obvious  that  this  spontaneity  of  joy  must 
decrease  with  age  and  experience  and  trou- 
ble and  knowledge  of  the  heavy  mysteries 
of  life,  but  need  its  sources  dry  away  alto- 
gether, or  is  there  not  some  fount  from 
which  they  may  be  replenished  ? 

He  is  fortunate  to-day  who  holds  the 
power  to  make  people  laugh,  if  only  they 
laugh  at  wholesome  things  and  thoughts. 
We  can  always  find  something  to  weep  for, 
without  overmuch  labor,  but  cause  for  mer- 
riment must  frequently  be  sought  outside 
ourselves  and  with  difficulty.  He  who 
looks  for  it  in  the  literature  of  the  day, 
however,  will  often  have  his  labor  for  his 
pains,  for  a  strain  of  morbidity  and  sadness 
breathes  through  much  of  it,  and  it  is  only 
necessary  to  bring  many  a  so-called  cheerful 
book  to   the  test  of  the   sick-room  to  dis- 


^y 


BBOTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER     153 

cover  how  lamentably  it  comes  short  of  its 
reputation.  It  is  so  easy  to  win  a  name  for 
brilliancy  by  writing  with  the  pen  of  the 
cynic ;  the  pessimist  can  be  so  original  at 
such  slight  expense  that  it  is  the  less  won- 
der that  the  style  is  so  popular  a  one.  It 
is  difficult  to  be  witty  without  being  sarcas- 
tic, and  difficult  to  be  funny  except  at  other 
people's  expense.  The  disagreeable  things 
are  always  sharpest  and  most  trenchant,  — 
else,  why  does  Polly  remember  the  "  swear- 
words "  so  easily  ? 

And  here  one  takes  thought  of  the  chil- 
dren again,  who  cannot  indeed  be  long  out 
of  mind  in  such  a  book  as  this.  There  are 
no  words,  it  seems  to  me,  that  can  fitly  esti- 
mate the  worth  to  them  of  a  companionship 
which  is  full  of  this  buoyancy,  this  light- 
heartedness,  this  simple  gayety.  An  emi- 
nent speaker  on  education  has  lately  said 
that  in  the  days  to  come,  no  cynic,  pessi- 
mist, or  morbid  person  will  ever  be  given  a 
teacher's  appointment,  and  aU  lovers  of 
children  wiU  ardently  hope  for  the  fulfill- 


154  BROTHERHOOD   OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 

ment  of  the  prophecy.  These  little  ones 
are  too  sensitive,  too  impressionable,  to  be 
exposed  to  the  influence  of  melancholy, 
which,  like  the  chill  darkness  of  a  cellar, 
inevitably  blanches  and  blights  every  fresh 
bud  of  mind  and  soul.  We  know  well 
enough  that  sunshine  is  an  absolute  neces- 
sity of  growth,  but  we  sometimes  forget 
that  moral  and  mental  sunshine  are  in- 
cluded in  this  essential. 

Happiness  in  childhood,  and  this  is  not 
sentimentality,  but  the  dictum  of  the  scien- 
tist, is  fundamentally  necessary  to  develop- 
ment. Pains  and  fears  and  anxieties  all 
repress  growth,  say  our  modern  psycholo- 
gists, and  it  has  been  clearly  proved  that 
nervous  shocks,  great  griefs,  distresses  of 
any  kind,  suspend  some  of  the  vital  pro- 
cesses for  a  time. 

It  has  been  shown  by  careful  medical 
observations  that  the  physical  results  of 
depressing  emotions  are  similar  to  those 
caused  by  bodily  accidents,  fatigue,  chill, 
partial  starvation,  and  loss  of  blood.    Birds, 


BROTHERHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER  155 
moles,  and  dogs,  which  apparently  died  in 
consequence  of  capture,  and  from  conditions 
that  correspond  in  human  beings  to  acute 
nostalgia  and  "  broken  heart,"  were  exam- 
ined after  death  as  to  the  condition  of  their 
internal  organs.  Nutrition  of  the  tissues 
had  been  interfered  with,  and  the  substance 
proper  of  various  vital  organs  had  under- 
gone the  same  kind  of  degeneration  as 
that  brought  about  by  phosphorus,  or  the 
germs  of  infectious  disease.  The  poisons 
of  grief,  of  sorrow,  of  fear,  of  misery  are 
more  than  names.^ 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  mysterious 
ministry  of  pain,  of  the  value  of  sorrow  as 
a  discipline  in  maturity,  we  may  be  assured 
that  such  a  discipline  is  not  for  childhood, 
which  needs  a  free  and  joyous  atmosphere 
where  it  may  grow  and  expand  all  its  possi- 
bilities. If  it  be  wrapped  about  with  misery 
and  gloom,  the  growth  of  brain  will  be  slow 
and  that  of  body  much  impaired. 

We  who  have  grown  older  can  live,  and 
^  Medical  Record. 


156  BROTHEEHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER 

must  live  oftentimes,  under  dark  clouds  and 
in  a  bleak  environment,  but  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  we  have  come  to  our  full 
stature,  and,  like  the  deep-rooted  forest 
tree,  make  less  of  chilling  frost,  of  ice  and 
snow  and  tempest,  than  does  the  budding 
rose-bush  in  the  garden. 

Ah,  but  this  is  all  a  matter  of  tempera- 
ment, you  say.  He  who  is  born  cheerful 
will  remain  cheerful;  but  he  who  comes 
into  the  world  under  an  unlucky  star  must 
e'en  remain  so,  and  bewail  his  fate. 

Some  part  of  this  feeling  is  doubtless 
rooted  in  truth,  just  as  there  is  no  question 
that  certain  virtues  are  more  easily  prac- 
ticed than  others  by  certain  natures,  and 
some  can  with  difficulty  be  practiced  at  all. 
Part  of  the  feeling  is  true,  but  how  much  of 
it?  If  as  we  are  born  so  must  we  die,  if 
our  spots  are  as  unchangeable  as  the  leo- 
pard's own,  then  the  whole  scheme  of  the 
universe  is  wrong,  and  we  are  the  blackest 
detail  in  the  plan.     But  to  believe  this  is 


BBOTHEBHOOD  OF  SAINT  TUMBLER  157 
to  disbelieve  everything  else,  and  that  in 
itself  is  madness.  .  .  . 

Good  friends,  my  plea  is  ended ;  let  who 
will  speak  now. 

Ho,  ye !  stand  forward,  all  who  would  join 
the  Brotherhood  of  Saint  Tumbler ! 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  NEIGHBOR- 
HOOD  WORK 

"This  bond  of  neighborhood  is,  after  all,  one  of  the 
most  human  —  yea,  of  the  most  divine  —  of  all  bonds. 
Every  man  you  meet  is  your  brother,  and  must  be,  for 
good  or  for  evil." 

In  these  days  of  social  settlements,  of 
neighborhood  guilds,  of  friendly  aid  houses, 
of  all  wholesome,  helpful  organizations 
based  on  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  free 
kindergartens  feel  a  pardonable  pride  as 
they  reflect  that  they  have  been  in  and  of 
this  work  from  the  beginning.  The  kinder- 
garten is  as  yet  but  a  grain  of  mustard  seed 
which  has  scarcely  begun  to  sprout ;  but  it 
is  rooted  in  all  good  things,  it  is  related  to 
all  forward  movements,  and  these  facts 
assure  us  that  it  is  destined  to  grow  until,  as 
Froebel  saw  it  in  prophetic  vision,  it  becom- 
eth  a  tree,  so  that  the  birds  of  the  air  come 
and  lodge  in  the  branches  thereof. 


NEIGHBORHOOD    WORK  159 

The  development  of  the  child  in  his  three- 
fold relations  with  nature,  with  God,  and 
with  mankind  is  the  first  article  in  the  kin- 
dergarten creed,  and,  as  the  little  one  is  led 
to  feel  the  last  relationship,  all  neighbor- 
hood life  is  touched  upon. 

There  is  no  other  educational  system 
which  has  this  social  basis,  and  therefore  no 
other  which  is  so  well  adapted  to  serve  as  a 
foundation  for  all  schemes  of  social  regen- 
eration. The  age  of  the  children  is  such 
that  the  teacher  must  naturally  regard  them 
with  a  tender  and  protective  feeling,  and 
this  attitude  of  mind  being  quickly  felt  and 
appreciated  by  the  mother,  the  two  women 
join  hands  in  love  for  the  little  one,  and 
the  first  links  in  the  chain  are  welded  to- 
gether. To  and  fro,  between  home  and 
school,  the  children  go,  blessed  little  mes- 
sengers of  good  will;  and,  when  the  kin- 
dergartner  calls  to  see  the  mother  or  the 
mother  comes  to  advise  with  the  kinder- 
gartner,  they  are  not  strangers,  though  they 
may  never  have  met  before,  for  so  much  has 


7 


160  NEIGHBORHOOD    JVORK 

been  reported  about  the  one  to  the  other 
that  they  seem  quite  like  old  friends.  The 
ideal  leader  of  the  free  kindergarten  knows 
well  every  one  of  the  families  whose  children 
are  in  her  care ;  she  has  visited  every  home 
in  a  friendly  way,  and  thus  gained  an  under- 
standing of  the  heredity  of  the  child  and 
his  environment,  which  she  could  have 
obtained  in  no  other  manner.  Seeing  her 
genuine  interest  in  the  little  one,  her  opinion 
of  his  abilities,  her  joy  in  his  achievements, 
the  parents  learn  to  value  him  still  more,  and 
are  drawn  nearer  together  by  their  pride 
and  love. 

Thus  the  neighborhood  work  begins,  and 
to  show  how  it  has  broadened  out  from 
thence  in  a  certain  institution  in  the  far 
West  will  be  to  show  what  is  and  must  be 
the  inevitable  effect  everywhere  of  Froebel's 
principles  as  applied  to  community  life. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  the  babies  who 
spend  the  years  from  three  to  six  in  close 
companionship  with  the  kindergartner  be- 
come  dear,  familiar  friends,  who  will   not 


NEIGHBOEHOOD   WORK  161 

and  cannot  be  shaken  off  when  they  have 
graduated  into  the  public  schools.  They 
return  to  bring  their  little  brothers  and 
sisters ;  they  drop  in  to  learn  how  the  young- 
lings are  getting  on ;  they  call  often  to  see 
if  they  may  do  errands  or  give  any  sort  of 
assistance ;  they  spend  all  possible  holidays 
in  the  charmed  atmosphere,  and  generally 
cling  to  the  place  like  a  devoted  heap  of 
iron  filings  to  a  very  powerful  magnet. 
What  can  be  done  with  this  army  of  de- 
voted followers  ?  thought  the  kindergartners 
in  that  Western  institution  long  ago ;  is 
there  not  some  useful  and  pleasant  work , 
that  we  can  give  them  ? 

The  demand  was  urgent,  and  the  supply, 
being  eagerly  looked  for,  did  not  fail  in 
coming.  The  housekeeper's  class,  or  kitchen 
garden,  originated  by  Miss  Emily  Hunting- 
ton, of  the  Wilson  Industrial  School  for 
Girls  (New  York),  was  described  to  the 
teachers,  and  they  immediately  formed  a 
class,  on  the  same  lines,  for  girls  from  nine 
to   fifteen    years.       This,    with    its    simple 


162  NEIGHBORHOOD   WORK 

instruction  in  household  duties,  its  pleasant 
suggestions  as  to  the  best  ways  of  washing 
and  ironing,  sweeping,  dusting,  and  table- 
setting,  brought  them  again  in  touch  with 
the  home,  and  another  band  of  messengers 
sped  to  and  fro  on  their  kindly  errands. 

But  here  were  the  boy  graduates,  a  little 
shyer  about  calling  to  offer  their  services, 
but  covering  the  steps  and  even  ornament- 
ing the  fences  after  school  -  hours,  and, 
through  want  of  occupation,  often  making 
themselves  rather  troublesome  visitors.  A 
generous  friend  came  to  their  rescue,  and 
four  years  ago  the  Boys'  Free  Library  was 
opened  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  building. 
Here,  in  bright,  pleasant  surroundings,  from 
two  to  six  o'clock  every  afternoon,  from  fifty 
to  sixty  of  the  neighborhood  boys  are  wel- 
comed and  provided  with  books,  magazines, 
and  quiet  games. 

Now  the  hands  of  the  teachers  were 
clasped  in  those  of  the  little  children  and 
of  the  older  boys  and  girls,  and  they  were 
necessarily  in  close  relation  with  the  home. 


NEIGHBORHOOD   WORK  163 

But  they  wanted  to  do  more  for  the  mo- 
thers —  some  of  them  so  patient  and  hard- 
working, so  sweet  and  good ;  others  so 
vicious  and  hardened,  and  ignorant  and 
dull.  So  the  kindergartners  asked  these 
needy  women  to  come  to  them  regularly 
for  friendly  chats  about  the  children,  for  ex- 
planation of  Froebel's  work-materials  and 
the  purpose  of  the  songs  and  games,  for 
bits  of  talk  about  home  matters  and  simple 
addresses  on  such  important  subjects  as 
children's  diseases  and  remedies,  children's 
food  and  clothing,  methods  of  discipline, 
etc.  These  mothers'  meetings  were  bright- 
ened with  tea,  and  music,  and  conversation, 
and  became  a  regular  and  most  valuable 
feature  of  the  institution  work. 

The  last  year  has  seen  two  more  very 
important  additions  to  the  social  life  of  the 
neighborhood,  —  the  opening  of  the  Li- 
brary on  two  evenings  a  week  for  boys  and 
young  men  at  work  by  day,  and  the  giving 
up  of  the  rooms  on  Saturday  afternoons  to 
the   girls,   who   have   been    provided   with 


\N 


164  NEIGHBORHOOD   WOBK 

cases   of  books    especially   suited   to   their 

needs. 

Now  the  circle  is  almost  complete,  the 
kindergartners  are  in  close  relation  with 
the  little  children,  the  boys  and  girls,  the 
mothers  and  homes  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  their  next  outward  reach  must  be  to- 
ward the  fathers,  whom  they  have  only 
touched  as  yet  by  proxy,  as  it  were. 
r^  Over  three  hundred  and  fifty  human 
beings,  of  all  ages,  go  in  and  out  every 
week  through  the  hospitable  doors  of  this 
institution  ;  and  in  many  cases  the  workers 
hope  —  nay,  they  know  —  that  what  is 
gained  under  that  roof  is  a  blessing  to  the 
entire  neighborhood. 

It  is  but  a  little  piece  of  the  world's 
work,  they  realize  ;  they  might  have  reached 
out  further  had  they  had  more  money,  they 
might  have  done  better  had  they  been  wiser, 
they  might  have  done  more  nobly  had  they 
seen  more  clearly ;  but  they  have  done 
what  they  could,  and  they  have  few  fears 
for  the  future.     And  so,  — 


NEIGHBORHOOD    WORK  165 

"  Here 's  to  the  Cause,  and  the  years  that  have  passed  ! 
Here 's  to  the  Cause  —  it  will  triumph  at  last ! 
The  End  shall  illumine  the  hearts  that  have  braved 
All  the  years  and  the  fears,  that  the  Cause  might  be 
saved. 
And  though  what  we  hoped  for,  and  darkly  have  groped 
for, 
Come  not  in  the  manner  we  prayed  that  it  should, 
We   shall  gladly   confess   it,  and   the  Cause,  may  God 
bless  it ! 
Shall  find  us  all  worthy  who  did  what  we  could !  " 


(3tbe  Kitocrjjjbc  pve^^ 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.  S.  A. 

ELECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED  BY 

H.  O.   HOUGHTON    AND   CO. 


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